Strasbourg, 20/12/2007 (Agence Europe) - The European Ombudsman has opened an investigation into delayed payments from the European Commission. This follows several complaints from individuals, companies and organisations involved in EU contracts and subsidised projects. The Ombudsman has called on the Commission to provide it with information on what has been done to avoid payment delays, such as statistics on these delays and information about Commission policy regarding compensation for late payments.
In February 2001, the European Ombudsman closed his first investigation into the delays and concluded that the Commission had taken satisfactory measures to tackle the problem. However, over the last six years, the Ombudsman has looked into around 30 complaints regarding delayed payments, indicated a press release. Those affected by this problem are NGOs, research centres, universities, associations and regional offices. The Ombudsman very recently helped a French company to get €88,000 reimbursed from the Commission. Another case involved late payment for a student exchange programme between the United Kingdom and Germany. The Ombudsman also received two complaints from an expert regularly working with the Commission. This is why the Ombudsman opened his second investigation in an attempt to assess the measures taken by the Commission to prevent late payments to contractors and subsidy beneficiaries. He called on the Commission to present him with information on the number of late payments, the period of delays and Commission policy on compensation for delays. The Ombudsman also asked the Commission to send him its opinion by 31 March 2008 at the latest.
The letter opening the investigation can be consulted at: http://www.ombudsman.europa.eu/initiatives/en/2007oi5opening.htm