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Press release
Budgetary Control MEPs postpone approving Council spending
Budgetary control - 16-03-2009 - 20:27
Committees
Committees
MEPs voted Monday to postpone approving the EU Council of Ministers' spending for 2007. The Budgetary Control Committee said Council's administrative spending had in fact become increasingly operational, and that Parliament should therefore have scrutiny over the Council budget. Yet the Council has consistently refused to give the committee the facts.
Rapporteur Søren SØNDERGAARD (EUL/NGL, DK) explained that the vote to postpone "granting discharge" was to show that MEPs took this issue very seriously but also to give Council the opportunity to deliver the information requested before the April plenary session, when the full House will vote on budget discharges for the EU institutions and agencies.
Bulk of EU budget spending approved
The Budgetary Control Committee also decided to postpone granting discharge to the Police College, and for similar reasons: a lack of information. All other institutions and agencies got their approval, however, including the Commission, which, with the Member States, is responsible for spending the bulk of the EU budget on various policies.
No DAS: Member States should check better
In a resolution drafted by Jean-Pierre Audy (EPP-ED, FR) the committee 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 urged 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.
Council operations
Bulk of EU budget spending approved
The Budgetary Control Committee also decided to postpone granting discharge to the Police College, and for similar reasons: a lack of information. All other institutions and agencies got their approval, however, including the Commission, which, with the Member States, is responsible for spending the bulk of the EU budget on various policies.
No DAS: Member States should check better
In a resolution drafted by Jean-Pierre Audy (EPP-ED, FR) the committee 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 urged 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.
Council operations
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", the Budgetary Control Committee said 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".
MEPs therefore regretted that the Council, "unlike other institutions", does not submit an annual activity report to Parliament. The resolution, which was adopted by 27 votes in favour and 2 against with no abstentions, 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.
General EU 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 noted 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.
Bulgaria and Romania
MEPs voiced support for the temporary suspension of funding to Bulgaria and Romania. They called for quarterly reports from the Commission until the situation is clarified, but also for special reports on the current management and control of all EU funds in Bulgaria and Romania. The report on Romania should also describe progress made in the fight against corruption, they added.
MEPs even said that the Commission has not treated the accession of Romania and Bulgaria with the necessary seriousness and that "the Commission disregarded the Copenhagen criteria and misled public opinion and Parliament about the readiness of these Member States to the detriment of the reputation of the Union and the steady development of the Member States in question".
Agriculture
MEPs were 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.
Structural funds
Important problems exist also with the structural policy funds, which show a rate of at least 11% not being properly reimbursed. MEPs were concerned that almost all the financial corrections that had to be imposed under the European Regional Development Fund from 2000 to 2006 were accounted for by Spain and Italy, and to a lesser extent the United Kingdom. Similarly, nearly all corrections under the Cohesion Fund were accounted for by Greece and Spain. For the Social Fund, it was mainly Spain and Italy who accounted for the corrections needed.
Good news in research
There was also good news: the error rate in research and technological development has gone down dramatically, to just over 2%.
NGOs
The Budgetary Control committee noted 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.
Approval for EP spending
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, the committee voted to say that Parliament should "under no circumstances provide extra money out of the budget to cover the fund's deficit". In a resolution drafted by by Paolo Casaca (PES, PT) it also called on Parliament's Bureau to publish a list of members of this pension scheme.
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, the committee voted to say that Parliament should "under no circumstances provide extra money out of the budget to cover the fund's deficit". In a resolution drafted by by Paolo Casaca (PES, PT) it also called on Parliament's Bureau to publish a list of members of this pension scheme.
MEPs asked the Secretary-General to make an "overall analysis of all costs generated by the geographical dispersion of parliamentary activities in Strasbourg and Brussels" and they asked for an independent report on the CO2 burden as a result of having 12 plenary sessions per year in Strasbourg.
The six body scanners which Parliament bought in 2005 following a security-risk analysis and a recommendation by an outside consultant should now be sold if possible and in future Members should be involved in the decision-making on such purchases.
Other discharges
The Council and the Police College apart, the Budgetary Control Committee recommended granting discharges to all other institutions and agencies of the EU when the full House votes at its April session in Strasbourg.
16/03/2009
Committee on Budgetary Control
In the chair : Herbert BÖSCH (PES, AT)
In the chair : Herbert BÖSCH (PES, AT)
REF.: 20090316IPR51917
Further information :
- Website of the Budgetary Control Committee
- Legislative Observatory file - EU General Budget Section III Commission - full text adopted will appear here in due course
- Legislative Observatory file - EU General Budget EP - full text adopted will appear here in due course
- Legislative Observatory file - EU General Budget Council - full text adopted will appear here in due course