Brussels, 20/10/2006 (Agence Europe) - In its draft conclusions approved without debate on 19 October by the EU Committee of Permanent Representatives (Coreper), the Council, which is also expected to adopt the conclusions without debate on 23 October, expresses its concern about the system set in place by the European Commission to manage the allocation of Community funds for the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T). Based on the conclusions of a highly critical report by the European Court of Auditors on the Commission, published in April this year, the Council adopted several Court recommendations aimed in particular at improving the assessment and monitoring of projects.
In its special report No 6/2005 on the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T), published in the Official Journal C 94 of 21 April, the Court spelled out the many shortcomings in the management system set in place by the Commission for the granting of Community funds to TEN-T. It mainly criticises: - the delay in achieving the 14 Essen priority projects, especially the cross-border sections; - the breakdown of Community financial aid which is also insufficiently targeted on projects; - the Commission's financing decisions which are considered deficient and imprecise (although they are the main legal base for financial allocations); - the unwieldiness of the assessment procedure and that for project selection; - the inadequate follow-up and lack of systematic control of projects; - the lack of competence and over-heavy workload for the personnel carrying out assessment, selection and monitoring of projects; - and the lack of coordination of Community aid, which prevents all cases of over-financing or double financing from being detected. The report formulates a series of recommendations to the Commission, and also contains responses from the Commission.
In its conclusions, the Council states its concern about the main findings of the Court and in particular about the delay in carrying out the Essen priority projects, especially the cross-border sections. It signs up to most of the recommendations to: - define with greater precision the object of the activities that are jointly financed, on one hand, from studies and, on the other, from work; - develop a coherent and harmonised method for assessing TEN-T projects and making it public; - reduce the number of formulas to be filled in, and review their content in order to cover all relevant assessment and selection criteria set out by the legislator; - strengthen the follow-up of projects by defining minimum standards for reports on the state of progress of the project, by carrying out more regular on-the-spot checks and ex-post impact assessments; - envisage returning to a form of centralised management for TEN-T projects within the Directorate General on Energy and Transport at the Commission, and adjust the number of powers of the agents assigned to that sector; - and establish, where necessary with Member States, the appropriate legal bases, procedures and tools for improving TEN-T financing coordination.
The Council also notes in its conclusions that the Commission has already taken account of certain of the Court's recommendations (mainly concerning application and assessment formulas), and that the new proposal for a regulation on the granting of Community financial aid to TEN-T, currently being looked at, should allow some of the aspects of dysfunction noted to be overcome. (dt)