Luxembourg, 17/10/2001 (Agence Europe) - In its special report No 13/2001 on Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), the Court of Auditors notes that, despite the urgent nature of actions decided in this framework, the time lapse between the Council's decision and the first payment grew considerably between the 1998 and 1999 financial periods, and was even longer than that for 1997. Information forwarded to the Court is often late and irregular, if not insufficient, and the reduced frequency of the financial reports is a serious obstacle to the systematic control of projects. The report recalls that the Council decided, on 30 March 2000, that spending linked to the EU special representatives should be funded out of the budget of the Council's Secretariat General and no longer from the Commission's operational budget. In other terms, states the Court, the Council implements its own decisions, hindering the implementation of political control. Also, the definition and application of provisions concerning expenditure relating to the salary and allowances of special representatives and administrative staff are not free from ambiguity.
The Court makes the following recommendations: (1) the Parliament, Council and Commission should adopt, at inter-institutional level, clear operational provisions and principles concerning the respective roles of the Commission and Council in the implemntation of CFSP; (2) the financial management of the actions conducted under CFSP should be more transparent; (3) the Commission should take measures to reduce delays and manage contracts in a more transparent way: the many extensions and retroactive changes should be limited to cases of absolute necessity only; (4) explicit rules should be established for remuneration and other spending relating to special representatives and administrative staff.
In a press release published last Friday, the European Commission states it shares the concerns of the Court of Auditors and announces that it will soon adopt a communication on the management of actions in the context of CFSP. Avoiding all reference to a possible inter-institutional agreement, it considers that a better division of tasks between the Commission and the Council is being born from experience, which it considers positive, in the context of the management and the coordination of EU actions and NATO actions in Macedonia, and more widely in the Balkans. The Commission also considers that the reform of management of external programmes linked to broader administrative reform of the Commission will make it possible to resolve the other problems concerning the implementation of CFSP actions. (The report is available on the internet at the address: http: //http://www.eca.eu.int ).