Brussels, 10/10/2001 (Agence Europe) - The President of the Court of Auditors, Jan Karlsson, is due to present the Court's Annual Report on the 2000 budget year to the European Parliament's 12/15 November session in Strasbourg. Mr Karlsson will first present the report to the Budgetary Control Committee on 12 November and then to the plenary on 13 November. The report will be accompanied by the Court's notes on the management of Community accounts in the 2000 budget (the Statement of Assurance or SOA) and various special reports to help the EP express its opinion on granting budgetary discharge to the Commission. The Annual Report contains a chapter on each of the headings in the Financial Perspectives, on own resources and the European Development Fund (EDF).
EUROPE understands that there will be an additional special chapter this year on enlargement and that the Court's considerations will be based on an audit enabling it to highlight, in some cases, inherent weaknesses in the Community management instruments rather than errors as such. Last year, the Court of Auditors again refused to give a favourable opinion on the management of payment credits, with the exception of own resources, commitments, institutional personnel expenditure and the EDF (see EUROPE of 10 November 2000).