In a special report published on Wednesday 1 March, the EU Court of Auditors concludes that, even if the creation of new types of instruments were justified, the fragmented approach underlying the EU’s financial landscape has resulted in a juxtaposition of instruments with different funding sources and governance arrangements.
New instruments have been created to address emerging policy challenges and to overcome legal or practical constraints in using existing instruments. However, most of the instruments assessed by the auditors (10 out of 16), including those not proposed by the Commission, did not follow good practice by including clear evidence that the option and features selected were the most appropriate. As a result, governance arrangements vary considerably for similar types of instruments, adding to the overall complexity, the report says.
For the next Multiannual Financial Framework, the Commission should propose integrating the Modernisation Fund into the EU budget taking into account its specificities, according to the Court of Auditors.
Unlike the Innovation Fund, the Modernisation Fund was created outside the EU budget. Therefore, its governance arrangements are different; it is not subject to oversight by the European Parliament and the Court has no audit rights over it. Finally, the auditors invite the Commission to engage with the European Parliament, the EU Council and the European Stability Mechanism to reach a common position on the integration of the European Stability Mechanism into the ‘EU legal framework’.
Link to the report: https://aeur.eu/f/5l6 (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)