Brussels, 30/11/2006 (Agence Europe) - As part of the package of decisions on the draft 2007 budget, on 30 November, the Council formalised the compromise reached with the European Parliament on updating the 2002 provisions on the financial regulation applicable to the general EU budget. According to the European Commission, from where the proposal originated, the new rules will simplify procedures for obtaining EU aid under the 2007-2013 financial framework. Most will come into force on 1st May 2007.
The agreement substantially cuts excessive paperwork and procedures for beneficiaries of small grants and contracts (below €25,000), such as SMEs, schools, universities, research laboratories, development agencies and municipalities. In most cases, they will not have to supply evidence of clean criminal or professional records or provide guarantees for up-front payments.
The updating of budgetary provisions will also allow the EU to make funding more quickly available in the event of end-of-year humanitarian crises. Moreover, it will also be easier to delegate the management of the EU funds directly to recognised national bodies in the third countries receiving EU aid. It will become compulsory for the identity of the beneficiaries of funding from Structural and Agricultural Funds to be made public, from 2008 for the Structural Funds and 2009 for agricultural aid.
The Commission will be able to make use of a further instrument to prevent fraud, with the setting up of a central database of organisations excluded from EU funding. This database will contain all relevant information on bodies convicted of fraud or corruption in the Member States and third countries involved in the implementation of EU programmes. National administrations have committed themselves to put in place effective internal control systems to monitor the EU funds they administer. Once a year, Member States will provide the Commission with summaries of the available audits on these EU funds. This information will allow the Commission to keep better control of how the EU budget is being implemented. (lc)