Brussels, 07/11/2006 (Agence Europe) - Areas of progress outlined in the Court of Auditors' Report on the EU's 2005 budget (see EUROPE 9293) needs to be accompanied by further efforts from everyone, said Finnish finance minister Eero Heinäluoma on Tuesday after the ECOFIN Council. The President of the Court of Auditors, Hubert Weber, briefed the ministers on the Court's work and put forward several suggestions. At their meeting in February 2007, the EU's finance ministers will examine the Council's recommendation to the European Parliament on the EP's discharge of the Commission's budget.
The President of the Court of Auditors told ministers that the Court had found that the consolidated accounts were a faithful reflection of the European Communities' financial situation as at 31 December 2005, but there had been little improvement in the situation regarding the legality and regularity of underlying operations since the previous year. Weber said that in many areas of expenditure, suitably adapted risk management was not always ensured. For the twelfth year in a row, the Court noted that the situation was still more or less the same. Weber recommended a few measures to improve the situation, like simplifying the rules governing expenditure (particularly for public procurement and subsidies and making more frequent use of standard charges); risk assessment of different types of management; establishing a logical chain of effective internal controls; and establishing a penalty system for all areas of the budget.
Siim Kallas, EU Budget Discharge Commissioner, welcomed the oral conclusions made by the Finnish Presidency following Hubert Weber's presentation of the Court of Auditors' report. Kallas welcomed the fact the Finnish Presidency had called on Member States to improve their controls of the use of EU funding under shared management between national authorities and the European Commission (most of the mistakes detected by the Court of Auditors concerned EU funding under national management, explained Kallas' department) and to implement the measures suggested by the European Commission in its action plan on an integrated control system (simplifying rules on expenditure and incorporating Member States' controls into a coherent European system). Kallas also welcomed the fact the Finnish Presidency called on the Court of Auditors to work on its own methodology (the Commission criticises the court of overplaying the mistakes it had detected). Kallas rejected the Court of Auditors' criticism of lack of effectiveness in recovering Common Agricultural Fund monies and the procedures for closing Structural Fund programmes. A spokesperson for Kallas pointed out that the European Commission had recovered EUR 2.2 bn in irregularly paid funding in 2005 and wanted the Court of Auditors to acknowledge the solidity of the recovery instruments already in place.
The Commission believes that greater responsibility should be given to national administrations in the EU budget process because they spend 76% of the EU's budget. Kallas welcomed Member States' pledge to provide annual summaries of audits and statements about Structural Fund and Common Agricultural Fund expenditure. The Commission hopes this will improve surveillance of the spending of EU money in the Member States (an area where the Court of Auditors' formulated a series of criticisms). The Commission will be trying to ensure a wholly positive statement of assurance by 2009 (in other words before the end of term of office) (ab/lc)