The European Court of Auditors expressed its concern about the uncertainties related to the Brexit adjustment reserve fund in opinion No 1/2021 delivered on Monday 1 March.
The Court’s main source of concern is the lack of a framework around the pre-financing of the fund, which represents 80% of the €5 billion planned for 2021. The Court takes a dim view of the fact that Member States can obtain such large sums of money without having to provide the European Commission with “detailed” information on the measures to be financed. The Commission will not be able to evaluate the measures before the end of 2023, when the fund will come to an end.
The calculation methodology chosen by the Commission, which is based on the quantity of fish taken from UK waters and trade, is also problematic for auditors. In their view, the uncertainties related to the impact of Brexit could make the methodology partly unsuitable (this item is also being discussed in the Council of the EU – see EUROPE 12659/13).
Furthermore, the choice of the eligibility period for the implementation of the measures, which runs from July 2020 to December 2022, has not been justified by the European Commission. The Court of Auditors also considers that the proposal is subject to interpretation with regard to the eligibility of expenditure.
The auditors make other rather technical observations. As such, they note that the content of the management declaration in the context of a financial contribution application does not provide for the declaration of the person responsible for managing the fund to confirm the functioning of the control system. Again, this casts doubt on the reliability of the statements.
The Court notes that the measurable indicators chosen by the Commission provide only limited data to measure the effectiveness of the instrument. Furthermore, the proposal does not require Member States to set targets for these indicators, which could potentially make evaluation even more difficult.
To consult the Court’s opinion: https://bit.ly/303Xgaf (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)