Brussels, 16/01/2007 (Agence Europe) - On 9 January 2007, the European Commission adopted its report on the operation of the inspection arrangements for traditional own resources (2003-2005) in the EU budget. Anomalies noted tend to confirm the benefit which the Commission can derive from the inspections it carries out, in the knowledge that Member States must rectify any of their procedures that are not in line with the approved Commission method. In future, the Commission plans to: continue its traditional role as regards on-the-spot inspections, while improving its inspection methods; continue strengthening its monitoring of recovery measures in the Member States; and continue monitoring the acceding countries.
Main results of inspections. Over the 2003-2005 period, the Commission carried out 73 inspections (compared to 65 for the 2000-2002 period) and noted 297 anomalies (compared to 304 in 2000-2002) which had a financial impact of €127 million. Also, the total amount of interest on late payment by Member States amounts to over €77 million.
In 2003 and 2004, the Commission inspected electronic customs declarations of Member States. It noted some anomalies but considers the systems in place “were on the whole satisfactory”. Furthermore, the Commission monitored inward processing carried out in 2003 in the Netherlands and in 2004 in France, Ireland, Italy and Austria; as well as in 2005 in Germany and the United Kingdom. It revealed a number of shortcomings as regards the management of control of this customs procedure (which allow products to be imported free of tax in order to re-export them after processing), with some financial consequences. The Member States concerned have informed the Commission that they have taken the measures necessary.
After an investigation carried out in 2004 in three countries (Germany, Luxembourg and the United Kingdom), the Commission revealed “major shortcomings” in the management of control of these procedures regarding Community air transit. The countries concerned have since improved the situation. The Commission did not find any serious anomalies during controls on entry and import of fishery products into the Community. The Commission points out that other inspections were also made: - in Spain on exports of C sugar from the Canary Islands, in Austria on preferential arrangements, and in the Netherlands on release for free circulation. The management of procedures in the Member States inspected “did not give rise to any special comment on the part of the Commission”.
Management of the separate account is a recurrent subject of inspection for the Commission in all the Member States. This account represents a rich source of information on how administrations carry out their responsibilities as regards the management of traditional own resources (establishment of entitlements, management of guarantees, monitoring of recovery, cancellations, writing-off of irrecoverable debts). Inspections in this field over the period 2003-2005 confirmed that most errors were one-off. However, systematic errors persist in a number of Member States, leading to infringement procedures.
Disputes. At 31 December 2005, a total of 25 cases involving ten Member States were at various stages of the procedure. In two judgements delivered on 14 April 2005, against Germany and the Netherlands, the European Court of Justice upheld the Commission's position and ruled that the two countries had been late in entering in the accounts and making available duty that was owed after transit operations had not been discharged in the regulation time-limits. The interest on late payment claimed by the Commission amounted to some €2.4 million from the Netherlands and €11.4 million from Germany. Several other judgements confirmed the Commission's position. For example, in October 2006, the Court ruled against certain Member States (Germany, Belgium) for refusing to pay the certain categories of resources in the Community budget, in this case instalments of traditional own resources recovered under a payment plan. (lc)