On Wednesday 11 December, the European Court of Auditors ruled that EU aid for Morocco, through direct transfers to its Treasury between 2014 and 2018, “provided limited added value and had done little to support reforms in the country”.
Over the period 2014-2020, the Commission has scheduled €1.4 billion in support, mainly in the sectors of social services, the Rule of law and sustainable growth.
On average, EU budget support currently amounts to some €132 million per year and represents about 0.37% of the country's annual budget expenditure, which limits its overall leverage, the Court of Auditors stated in a report on 11 December.
According to the auditors, the European Commission, while responding to the needs identified in the national and European strategies, has spread the funding over too many sectors. This may have weakened the impact of the funding, the Court regrets.
The latter adds that the Commission's management of budget support programmes “has suffered from weaknesses in the way they have been designed, implemented and monitored, as well as with regard to the evaluation of results”.
Thus, in their report, the auditors recommend that the Commission concentrate aid on a smaller number of sectors and to improve performance indicators in order to enable an objective assessment, strengthen monitoring procedures for disbursements, intensify sectoral dialogue and increase the visibility of EU support.
Read the Court's report: http://bit.ly/349LiM6 (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)