On Tuesday, 10 February, the European Court of Auditors published a critical report on the European Commission’s proposal for a regulation that would combine the EU Civil Protection Mechanism (UCPM) and support for health emergencies (EU4Health) for the 2028–2034 period.
The auditors notably point out transparency-related flaws in the indicative budget, which has leapt from €5.3 billion (UCPM and EU4Health included) during the previous period to €10.7 billion. The Court [of Auditors] deplores the fact that there is no economic justification for this increase, emphasising that “the Commission did not provide a cost analysis, including calculations of how the budget was estimated”. It fears that the lack of clear allocations for prevention, preparedness, and response activities will adversely affect the predictability of funding.
Integrating the health component also raises concerns about the overlap between the structures. The Court [of Auditors] notes the lack of “clear provisions on coordination” between civil protection and the new crisis centres and is concerned about a “default” approach to funding that is not linked to costs, affirming that this “introduces new risks for compliance, sound financial management, transparency, accountability and traceability in terms of how funds are spent”. Moreover, the performance indicators that the European Commission has proposed are considered “insufficient to assess the performance of all the activities” included in the proposal.
Finally, the Court of Auditors is calling for its audit rights to be formally enshrined in the regulation so as to ensure rigorous control of the funds, including in third countries.
The full report: https://aeur.eu/f/ko1 (Original version in French by Justine Manaud)