The interinstitutional meeting of the Council, European Parliament and European Commission on the payment appropriation system that took place in Brussels on Thursday 1 September had a positive outcome because Budget Commissioner Kristalina Georgieva said that the late payments problem for the 2007-2013 Cohesion Policy programmes had been "solved".
Georgieva told the Council and European Parliament that now that the unpaid invoices under the Cohesion Policy for 2007-13 have been solved, there would be less late payment interest to pay.
Problems with implementing the 2016 budget. The Commission noted, however, considerable delays under two headings: - Cohesion Policy (heading 1b): €4.5 billion less was spent in 2016 than in 2015 (the designation of programme management authorities is said to have been delayed); - natural resources (heading 2): there is reported to be a gap of more than €15 billion due to control procedures to be introduced in relation to new direct aid arising from the most recent reforms of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). Some European sources say that three countries in particular are having problems with this aspect of the CAP: Italy, Romania and France.
European sources say the Commission is wondering whether it would be a good idea for the next EU multiannual financial framework (post-2020) to maintain application of the ‘n+3’ rule for the Structural Funds. It may consider moving from n+3 to n+2 in order to encourage countries to speed up programme adoption and implementation.
Moreover, the Commission is said to he insisting on the need to make rules simpler. A draft review of the EU’s financial regulation is currently being studied. The next meting on the payment appropriation system will take place in October. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)