On Tuesday 10 October, at the request of the Council of the EU, the European Court of Auditors published an opinion on the new adjusted package for own resources for the EU budget proposed by the European Commission in June (see EUROPE 13254/17). While the EU auditors welcome the proposed changes, they once again highlight the complexity of the EU funding system.
The Commission’s proposal consists of amending two previously proposed sources of revenue based on recently adopted legislation: one based on the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) and the other on the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM). In addition, the Commission is proposing a new statistical own resource based on company profits.
The European Commission forecasts average annual revenues of around €24 billion for the period 2024-2027 and €36.5 billion from 2028 onwards.
In its observations, the Court of Auditors notes that the information available from the Commission does not allow it to assess whether the expected annual revenues from the adjusted package of new own resources are sufficient to cover the financial needs of Next Generation EU and the Social Climate Fund.
The EU auditors also state that “no review procedure has been introduced for resolving disputes between the Commission and member states about calculating the new statistical own resource based on company profits”.
With regard to the CBAM-based own resource, the Court of Auditors believes that the European Commission should retain inspection powers for managing these specific resources.
Faced with all the proposed changes, the increase in the number of own resources and the introduction of different rules in certain cases for making them available, the Court of Auditors reiterates the assessment of its previous opinions concerning the complexity of the EU financing system. It calls on the European Commission to propose that all the rules on making own resources available be consolidated in a single legislative act.
To see the opinion of the Court of Auditors: https://aeur.eu/f/8zl (Original version in French by Pauline Denys)