In a briefing paper published on Monday 28 May 2018, the European Court of Auditors provided five indications it believes could help improve the effective simplification of post-2020 cohesion policy.
Cohesion policy is the EU's biggest investment programme and has a budget of €350 billion for the 2014-2020 period. The Commission has forecast a 10% reduction in the budget for the 2021-2027 tax year, according to the most recent forecasts (see other article).
On Tuesday, the Commission will formulate the latest proposals to reform cohesion policy by tackling, for example, the theme of cohesion policy simplification.
Although the Court of Auditors did indeed highlight the efforts made by the Commission over the ongoing period to simplify cohesion policy application, the auditors consider, nonetheless, that the simplification target must be the subject of a "strong commitment" by all the institutions if concrete results are to be achieved. According to the Court, efforts to create simplification "should not jeopardise achievements in strengthened internal control".
Mr Ladislav Balko, the Auditor responsible for the briefing paper stated "There is a consensus…that the delivery of Cohesion Policy needs further simplification in the post-2020 period" but that the objectives of this simplification and the way of proceeding should also be just as clear.
The European Court of Auditors advocates "simple, clear and stable rules" and better harmonisation of the rules relating to different funds and programmes. The auditors also recommend the simplification of the structure of the operational programs and regret that "There are around 1,400 authorities in charge of managing and auditing more than 390 OPs in the Member States".
The auditors criticise the "over regulation" and recommend better use of new technologies to achieve "substantial savings" and that there is a "need to ensure that… simplification offered by payment against the fulfilled conditions is accompanied by a greater focus on performance".
The briefing paper ultimately calls on the Commission and member states to guarantee "More efficient and effective controls".
The full briefing paper is available in English at the following link: https://bit.ly/2IS2AaK . (Original version in French by Mathieu Solal, trainee)