Brussels, 18/01/2000 (Agence Europe) - After being in operation for one year now, the Common Service for External Relations (SCR) at the European Commission has considerably reduced the payments backlog in financing cooperation projects, the Commission stated in a press release. It welcomes the fact that the number of valid invoices waiting to be paid has been reduced by 81% for aid programmes. On 31 December 1999, 306 invoices remained unpaid as opposed to 1,600 invoices o 31 May 1999, when the SCR had completed its inventory of files and invoices received from the services responsible for cooperation projects. The Commission had committed, in 1999, more than 96% of the EUR 5.3 billion budget for cooperation (outside EDF) and disbursed 94% of the 3.9 billion available credits. In cases such as NGO co-financing, the Commission assured that "all credits have been committed and all invoices have been paid". On the other hand, 74 invoices remain unpaid for the Phare programme whose EUR 1.2 billion payment credits have been exhausted.
Created at the end of 1998 to ensure the financial management of cooperation projects, the SCR gave top priority to the respect of payment timing, a matter on which the Commission was regularly criticised by NGOs and the other organisations that received aid, as well as by the OECD development aid committee. These delays sometimes endanger the fragile financial balance of non-governmental organisations. The SCR also simplified procedures by reducing the number of stages from 40 to 8, by editing a single manual for procedures and by introducing a model contract for the granting of subsidies. The SCR is managed by Director General Philippe Soubestre.
These first encouraging results of the Commission reform are vital for the international image of the European Union, Commissioner for External Relations Chris Patten declared.