The European Commission has efficiently used measures to protect the European budget against irregular cohesion policy spending. This is one of the major conclusions in a report by the European Court of Auditors (ECA) published on Thursday 27 April. There are, however, many areas where improvements could be made to optimise corrective financial measures.
Highlighting the fact that cohesion policy receives an envelope of €350 billion or approximately 37% of the Union budget over the 2007-13 and 2014-20 periods, the European auditors welcome the action taken by the Commission over the past few years. They highlight the increase in the use of corrective measures by the Commission, “to exercise pressure on member states” with regard to the previous period.
On the other hand, the ECA still highlights the “considerable” timeframe required for correcting irregular situations. It also highlights the risks that payment interruptions and suspensions for member states can pose (Point 145 of the reports).
In its conclusions, the Court therefore points out that the Commission has experienced difficulties in ensuring implementation of the financial corrections because the information provided by the member states is not sufficiently robust (Point 146). According to the ECA, however, the Commission reports on preventive measures and financial corrections do not help to, “obtain an analytical overview” (Point 147). Finally, the information systems used by the Commission to ensure the follow-up of preventive measures and financial corrections for 2007-2013, have proved insufficient (Point 148).
Nonetheless, the European Court of Auditors considers that the new regulatory provisions introduced for the current period are more appropriate and will help the Commission to better protect the EU budget (Point 147). It concludes that, overall, “these provisions for the 2014-20 period significantly improve system conceptualisation” (Point 150).
These conclusions are expected to be given a positive welcome by the European Commission given that the Commissioner responsible for this area, Corina Creţu, is getting ready to begin difficult negotiations on the future of post-2020 cohesion policy (see EUROPE 1756).
Over the 2000-2006 period, financial corrections accounted for €8.6 billion or 3.8% of the amount for the European Regional Development Fund, Cohesion Funds and the European Solidarity Fund. According to ECA forecasts, financial corrections will continue to increase over the 2007=13 and 2014-20 period.
The whole report is available here: http://bit.ly/2pCl2Kj (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)