Gross National Income (GNI) data is an important element in the calculation of Member States’ contributions to the EU budget, but according to a report by the European Court of Auditors published on Thursday 8 December, its verification is not sufficiently focused.
EU Member States’ GNI-based contributions are the main source of funding for the EU budget. In 2021, they reached €116 billion (two thirds of the budget). Eurostat checks the quality of EU countries’ GNI data in multi-annual cycles and may ask them to adjust their initial estimates upwards or downwards, which the European Commission uses to calculate their respective contributions.
The auditors assessed whether Eurostat managed its audits effectively during the last completed cycle (2016-2019).
The Court of Auditors found that Eurostat had completed its checks on time and communicated the necessary adjustments to the countries concerned in good time. However, many issues (20% more than at the end of the previous round) were left open as ‘reservations’, which means that the Member States concerned may have to pay more in the future.
With two new tools, Eurostat has been able to detect and mitigate risks by identifying the most important issues to be monitored. However, it did not make full use of this approach. Eurostat has classified EU countries into three risk categories (high, medium or low). It carried out its checks only for three of the seven high-risk Member States. As a result, about a quarter of the specific reservations issued at the end of the verification cycle concerned the four high-risk Member States that had not been properly prioritised.
Finally, Eurostat has not reacted quickly to the high-risk issue of multinationals relocating their activities or assets to benefit from favourable tax regimes.
Link to the report: https://aeur.eu/f/4l7 (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)