Press release

 

All other institutions and agencies got their approval, as a recommendation not to give discharge to the Police College for lack of information was rejected. Discharge to the European Commission, which, with the Member States, is responsible for spending the bulk of the EU budget on various policies, was given by 415 votes in favour and 72 against, with 11 abstentions.

 

 

In its discharge resolution Parliament did voice grave concern that the European Court of Auditors had not been able to issue a "Declaration of Assurance" for the 14th consecutive year, although there were clear improvements in some areas. MEPs urge Member States to co-operate better in checking on EU spending and recovering incorrectly spent funds. To this end, it has repeatedly advocated that Member States sign off such expenditure themselves.

 

 

Citing its 2002 discharge resolution, which referred to the Council's "increasingly operational nature of expenditure, financed under the Council's administrative budget, in the fields of foreign affairs, security and defence policy, and justice and home affairs" and referring to the creation of a financial mechanism called Athena to administer the financing of "operations having military and defence implications", MEPs say that the "administrative expenditure of the Council ought to be scrutinized in the same way as that of the other European institutions as part of the discharge procedure".

 

They therefore regret that the Council, "unlike other institutions", does not submit an annual activity report to Parliament. The resolution goes on to list Parliament's attempts to elicit information from the Council on its budget execution and a number of specific questions about the Council budget.

 

 

Noting once again that "some 80% of EU expenditure is administered by the Member States" and that the European Court of Auditors (ECA) has not been able to approve the expenditure for the 14th time in a row, MEPs stressed that the annual summaries of audits, which Member States have to provide as from 2008, are a first step but that what is really needed are national management declarations.

 

MEPs note that according to the ECA a large number of errors as well as less than effective monitoring and control systems were caused by "complicated or unclear legal requirements". They therefore urged the Commission to accelerate its simplification exercise. But Member States should be compelled to make the necessary improvements in their control systems, "in particular by imposing payment suspensions and financial corrections", they added.

 

 

MEPs note that over the period 2007 to 2013, Bulgaria is to receive EUR 6 853 000 in structural funding, and Romania EUR 19 200 000; in addition to the information given in the annual activity report and in the reports on the Structural Funds and the Cohesion Fund, MEPs call for responsible and effective administration of these funds. 

 

MEPs ask the Commission to submit a special report on the state of play of the management and control of all EU funds in Bulgaria covering the period until 15 July 2009.  MEPs call on the Commission, in the light of the last progress report and the setbacks with regard to the fight against corruption, to submit to it a special report on the state of play of the management and control of EU funds in Romania and on the measures taken and the progress made in the fight against corruption covering the period until 15 July 2009.

 

MEPs say that the Commission has not treated the preparation of the absorption capacity of Romania and Bulgaria with the necessary seriousness and that its actions in this respect had been misleading for Parliament and also for the Bulgarian and Romanian governments.

 

Parliament indicates that it "supports the temporary suspension of funding by the Commission in cases where a Member State's management systems fail to function as required."

 

 

MEPs are concerned at the very high error level in agriculture - 20% of payments at final-beneficiary level audits turned out to be incorrect. The problems in Greece with the implementation of the Integrated Administration and Control System were considered to be "unacceptable". Many Member States had problems with control systems for rural development funds. According to the Court of Auditors, the Netherlands, Portugal, the UK, France and Spain showed inadequacies with the Single Payment Scheme, whereas Greece, Italy Spain, the UK, France and the Netherlands suffered from a number of systemic shortcomings with regard to area-aid eligibility checks.

 

 

Important problems exist also with the structural policy funds, which show a rate of at least 11% not being properly reimbursed.

 

 

There was also good news: the error rate in research and technological development has gone down dramatically, to just over 2%.

 

 

The European Parliament notes the growing role and number of NGOs in the administration of EU funds. It asked the Commission to review the operating grants for NGOs' headquarters in Brussels and to gradually diminish them, as laid down in the Financial Regulation. It also wants the Commission to compile by the end of this year a comprehensive list of all NGOs which receive EU funds.

 

 

The European Parliament's political authorities also got the stamp of approval, although MEPs made a number of comments and recommendations. Noting that the voluntary pension fund for Members had an actuarial deficit of €30.92 million at the end of 2007, Parliament voted to say that "under no circumstances will Parliament in the prevailing economic situation provide extra money from the budget to cover the fund's deficit". Earlier, the same week the Bureau of the Parliament (its President and 14 Vice-Presidents) had confirmed its decision to raise the pension fund's retirement age, scrap the option of going in early retirement on a reduced pension and to end the possibility of taking out 25% of acquired pension rights in a lump sum. These measures were taken to improve the fund's liquidity and to avoid covering its actuarial deficit with taxpayers' money.