With the Council's definitive approval of the text establishing the European Public Prosecutor's Office anticipated on Thursday 12 October, the European Commission is currently reflecting on the possibility of relaxing certain structures of controls on European funds, to avoid duplicate checks (see EUROPE 11877).
The European Commissioner for Justice, Věra Jourová, is reported to have floated the idea of relaxing the cohesion rules, to be embedded into the post-2020 multi-annual financial framework, if more countries sign up to the supervision of the new Prosecutor's Office, Euractiv reported on Monday 9 October.
As things stand, only 20 member states have decided to participate in the new structure, which will aim to tackle fraud against European financial interests and VAT fraud in its cross-border dimension. Hungary, Poland, the Netherlands, Malta and Sweden did not wish to take part, whilst the United Kingdom, Ireland and Denmark exercised their opt-outs.
According to a European source - who confirmed to EUROPE that this idea is being looked into - control mechanisms can in some cases be fairly cumbersome and give rise to duplications of checks on the rules governing expenditure under European funds at European and national levels.
The creation of the Public Prosecutor's Office by 2020 is expected to have a deterrent effect on fraud, which will make it possible to consider relaxing certain controls, the source went on to explain, stressing that the idea was only at reflection stage.
Reacting to this proposal, the chair of the economic policy committee of the Committee of the Regions, Michel Delebarre (PES, France) told EUROPE that the local authorities had been calling for a simplification of the management of structural funds since long before the European Prosecutor's Office was proposed.
Welcoming the fact that the Commission is finally ready to discuss the matter, he warned about creating conditions whereby responsibility at national level is linked to a policy that will, by its nature, be implemented at local level. In such a situation, I would be concerned that the veiled threat of blackmail is aimed at the wrong target and will not raise much enthusiasm at local or regional level, or at the Committee of the Regions, he concluded. (Original version in French by Marion Fontana with Pascal Hansens)