Brussels, 19/04/2016 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission is not strict enough in its implementation of the procedure for excessive deficits under the Stability and Growth Pact, according to the European Court of Auditors, in a report published on Tuesday 19 April.
According to the European auditors, the Commission does not go far enough in monitoring the structural reforms required, focusing mainly on legislative aspects rather than on the effective implementation of reforms on the ground, nor does it make full use of its powers to require the provision of full data and the execution of the recommended corrective measures. Additionally, the Commission's resources to analyse the report submitted by the member states are inadequate and the registration of data remains lacking.
“Despite improvements in recent years, there is still too little information openly available about the Commission's data assumptions and parameters and its understanding of key concepts. In addition, even where the Commission has set clear internal rules, it may decide to depart from the established procedure, which raises questions about the overall reliability of its assessments”, the Court states in a press release.
The auditors examined the implementation of excessive deficit procedures opened between 2008 and 2015 against six member states (the Czech Republic, Germany, France, Italy, Cyprus and Malta).
On this basis, the Court recommends that the statistical office of the EU (Eurostat) assess the member states' control systems, improve the effectiveness of its controls on the ground, increase its transparency regarding the advice and orientations it provides to the states and improve the documentation of its internal procedures.
The Economic and Financial Affairs services are called upon to involve the national budgetary councils in order to confirm the national data used by the Commission, to focus on reducing public debt, ensure that the member states are keeping to their commitments in terms of structural reforms and, if necessary, to recommend that the Council take firm action and impose sanctions.
Debt criterion. On the question of public debt, the Court focused on the Italian situation, as this is the only country in which an infringement procedure has not been launched despite the fact that it has not managed to comply with the debt criterion, on the grounds of the analysis of other 'relevant factors' (economic situation, compliance with the medium-term budgetary objective, continuation of structural reforms). “In its assessments of France and Italy, the Commission made to use of the considerable amount of flexibility and powers of assessment laid down by the rules of the Pact”, the auditors' report reads.
Stressing that the Commission takes the work of the Court of Auditors to improve the application of the European budgetary rules “very seriously”, the institution's spokesperson for economic affairs, Annika Breidthardt, said that the Commission had already acted to remedy certain weaknesses identified, whilst recommending a reading of the Court's report rather than the press release accompanying it. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)