Brussels, 06/11/2008 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 5 November 2008, the European Commission published the first progress report on implementation of the February 2008 action plan to boost surveillance of Structural Fund spending (the Structural Funds, Cohesion Fund, European Social Fund, etc). The action plan was introduced in response to the EU Court of Auditor's recommendations in a report on the EU's 2006 budget (see EUROPE 9606).
The progress report was written by officials working in the departments of EU Regional Policy Commissioner Danuta Hübner and Employment Commissioner Vladimír Špidla. It shows that the European Commission's efforts to control structural spending have paid off because “the overall figure for financial corrections for the first three quarters of 2008 resulting from the Commission's activities is €843 million, compared with €287 million for the whole of 2007.” Of the €843 million irregularly paid funding recovered in the first three quarters of 2008, €627 million is corrections endorsed by the member states (€379 million from the 2000-2006 European Regional Development Fund - ERDF and €229 million from the European Social Fund - ESF for 2000-2006) and €216 million from corrections made following European Commission decisions. This €216 million comprises €100 million from the ERDF 1994-1999 in Germany (Berlin and the Thüringen region), the United Kingdom (the West Midlands) and Portugal (Alentejo); €36 million from the Cohesion Fund 2000-2006 in Portugal, Spain and Greece; and €24 million from the ESF in France (Guadeloupe), Ireland and the United Kingdom. The Commission decided to suspend payments in seven cases, including two programmes in Italy (Puglia and Calabria), Bulgaria (road transport programmes under the Cohesion Fund), Luxembourg (ESF), the United Kingdom (Scotland) and INTERREG (two programmes, one of which is Franco-British).
There are 140 cases under examination at the moment and the Commission report explains that 'the current estimate of potential financial corrections likely to result from the suspension and correction procedures underway is at least €1.5 billion.' (L.C./trans.fl)