Brussels, 10/03/2003 (Agence Europe) - On the occasion of a seminar devoted last week to reform of Structural Fund administration, Commissioner Barnier called for Member States to share the responsibility of managing these funds with the Commission. Speaking before the 650 experts meeting in Brussels, Michel Barnier called for Commission responsibility to be "restricted" instead of being a fictitious substitute for them as is currently the case. The Commissioner for regional policy thus insisted on a point that has already been evoked many times. The Commission considers it unfair that it should hold entire responsibility for the management of these funds, mainly vis-à-vis the Court of Justice, when the management of such programmes is decentralised in the Member States and regions. Despite this decentralisation, the Commission remains responsible for implementation of the Community budget, and must call for supporting documents in good and due form, Mr Barnier recalled. The Commissioner also took a stance in favour of adopting differentiated management rules according to the importance of the programmes and the size of Member States. He criticised the fact that Member States insist on the principle of a single system applicable to both EUR 30 million and EUR 10 billion programmes. Generally speaking, he called for greater clarity in the contractual relationship between the State, the regions and the Commission.
The Commission is organising a conference on the assessment of structural funds on 26 and 27 June in Budapest: method and impact, training of administrators in candidate countries.