The European Court of Auditors found that post-bailout surveillance of eurozone countries was adequate, but could be improved through legislative revision, in a report published on Wednesday 15 September.
In the view of the EU auditors, the post-bailout surveillance of four countries - Ireland, Portugal, Spain and Cyprus - and the enhanced surveillance of Greece have helped reassure investors that these countries can meet their financial commitments. However, they believe that the Commission's analysis could be more focused on the ability of the states concerned to repay their public debt. Moreover, there is no evidence that such surveillance has led to sound structural reforms, they add.
The Court of Auditors also observes an overlap of competences within the European Commission itself, where different services are responsible for post-bailout surveillance and the implementation of structural reforms within the framework of the ‘European Semester’ budgetary process. For streamlining purposes, it suggests integrating (enhanced) post-bailout surveillance into the ‘European Semester’.
“We believe that our work could inform the ongoing review of economic governance arrangements in the Economic and Monetary Union”, said Alex Brenninkmeijer, the member of the Court responsible for the report, as the Commission relaunches the discussion on the future of EU fiscal rules in the autumn (see EUROPE 12788/1). He added that this work “could contribute to the ongoing review of economic governance arrangements in the Economic and Monetary Union. It could also feed into discussions on the design of a possible surveillance mechanism for the repayment of the loans to be provided under the Recovery and Resilience Facility”, the instrument at the heart of the Next Generation EU Recovery Plan.
See the European Court of Auditors' report: https://bit.ly/2XnqALo (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)