Brussels, 08/04/2009 (Agence Europe) - Today, the European Commission appointed Mr Philippe Taverne as Deputy Director-General of the Directorate-General for Budget. In this capacity, he is also Chief Accounting Officer of the European Commission. The deputy director-general will be responsible for establishing the annual accounts of the EU institutions, and for coordinating relations with the European Court of Auditors and the European Parliament's committee on budgetary control.
Philippe Taverne, a 56 year-old Belgian, is currently director of the Central Financial Service in the Budget DG. In this capacity, he supervised the establishment of the Commission's internal control framework and the work that resulted in the recent communication on the concept of “tolerable risk of error”. Since joining the Commission in 1983, he has held a variety of posts with a particular focus on budget policy and management, including a ten-year stint at the Personnel and Administration DG. Prior to joining the Commission, Mr Taverne was an auditor, a consultant and spent three years in Nigeria as a company financial controller. He will take up his new duties on 1 June 2009. (L.C./transl.jl)