Calabria regional operational programme (ROP) 2014-2020: spending targets and automatic decommitment
4.1.2019
Question for written answer P-000007-19
to the Commission
Rule 130
Laura Ferrara (EFDD)
31 December 2018 was the deadline for meeting the mid-term expenditure target for the operational programmes financed by the ESI Funds. As indicated in the answers to written questions P-003303/2018 and P-006058-18, the amount to be certified under the ROP for Calabria is EUR 446 million. In order to achieve that target, according to the Commission’s very recent reply of 19 December, the managing authority still had to certify EUR 122 million.
In a press release of 30 December[1], the Calabria Region declared it had met its spending targets. However, no updated statistics concerning certified expenditure can be found on the regional portal[2]. Meanwhile, according to the Commission website[3], the payments (updated on a daily basis) for the Calabria ROP still amount to EUR 234 million.
Bearing in mind that EU funds are shares of the EU budget, based on national taxes and contributions, and that their use must be transparent and properly reported to the public, can the Commission say:
- 1.Whether, by the deadline of 31 December 2018, the 2014-2020 ROP for Calabria had achieved its spending target of EUR 446 million, thus avoiding the ‘automatic decommitment’ procedure;
- 2.Whether, in the light of the ‘Lande Desolate’ investigation and the modus operandi of numerous regional officials, it does not think it is worth scrutinising, through OLAF, the high level of expenditure certified in the last 10 days of December;
- 3.What the reasons were for the failure of the monitoring committee to meet in December 2018, as scheduled?