Nedzhmi Ali, on behalf of the ALDE Group. – Madam President, first of all I would like to congratulate our colleagues Ms Gräßle and Mr Ashworth on the enormous amount of work done during the last two years on the proposal for a regulation. Financial rules play an important role, setting out the principles and procedures governing both the revenue and expenditure parts of the European Union budget, as well as the control of EU funds. The main objectives of the Commission proposal are simplification and flexibility.

We support the broad objectives put forward by the Commission, especially the major priority of simplification for recipients of EU funds. This is very important in order to ease the work of the beneficiaries, and to reduce the delays in implementation of a number of EU key programmes. In this regard, we support the Commission’s aim of creating a single rule book for recipients.

In order to achieve maximum results we need to have impact assessment preceding any future substantial changes of the financial rules, as well as increasing cross-reliance on audits. Nevertheless, the Commission should maintain the right to audit if it deems it necessary.

We welcome the measures on budgetary flexibility. These were needed in order to enhance the ability of the EU budget to adapt to changing circumstances and to respond to unexpected developments. However, we need to maintain a balance between flexibility, sound financial management and the rights of the budgetary authority.

During the work on the proposal, the effective use of financial instruments has been improved. The financial rules will be a step towards a budget focused on results if we further embed performance into spending decisions.

We support the agreement reached during the trilogues. We believe that the simplification of EU financial rules will contribute to reducing the costs and time needed to implement EU funds, as well as decreasing the level of errors. It should also increase the impact of the policies and their results in the process of practical implementation.