Brussels, 24/01/2008 (Agence Europe) - Addressing the EP regional development committee in Brussels on Wednesday 23 January, Regional Policy Commissioner Danuta Hübner responded to the criticism from the Court of Auditors about 2006 structural funds which had been “incorrectly reimbursed” by saying, “A projected error rate of 12%” - i.e. €4 billion - in the use of EU structural fund money in 2006 “does not mean that there has been, or will be, a real loss to the Community budget”.
The process of detecting and correcting spending irregularities could take up to two years, but the system was, nonetheless, “working effectively to prevent errors”, she said, citing the examples of Portugal (where an audit of spending in 2005 led to measures to remedy weaknesses in the national control system) and the April 2007 suspension (which has since been lifted) of payments to 12 regional policy programmes in the United Kingdom. She said that the Commission was monitoring the action plans of 10 “at risk” member states, and that this process would eventually provide an assurance that spending irregularities had been cleared up. Some errors arose from the use of public contracts - and the Commission was working to remedy these almost in parallel with the Court of Auditors, she went on. The error rate here, she said, was “quite high”, and could be reduced by checks under the “contracts of confidence” that the Commission had just signed with Portugal (see EUROPE 9586), had already signed with Austria, Wales and Denmark, and was about to sign with Estonia and Slovenia.
Markus Pieper (EPP-ED, Germany), referring to the Nokia case, raised the issue of the use or non-use of European funds to finance relocations. Hübner replied that there were safeguards in place against the threat of relocation, with the recipient having to keep the operation in place for five years, failing which the money reverted to the EU budget, and pointed out that the Commission was training managers to better understand the EU control system.
Lidia Joanna Geringer de Oedenberg (PES, Poland) suggested that discussions on programmes should begin earlier so that the funds were ready on time. Hübner replied that, “The time frame for policy depends on the negotiation of programmes”, pointing out that some programmes for 2007-2013 had begun very swiftly, because they had been negotiated in parallel with the structural funds regulation and the budget. (G.B.)