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Parliamentary question - E-009620/2014Parliamentary question
E-009620/2014

2013 European Court of Auditors Annual Report

Question for written answer E-009620-14
to the Commission
Rule 130
Isabella Adinolfi (EFDD) , Piernicola Pedicini (EFDD) , Marco Valli (EFDD)

According to the 2013 European Court of Auditors (ECA) Report, the estimated error rate for the entire EU budget from 2009 to date has risen by 1.4%.

That is more than EUR 30 billion, to which must be added fraud and wastage not measured by the Court.

The error rate for administrative spending is 1%. That is likely to be underestimated, because the sampling targeted the payment of salaries, whereas it should have focused on contracts concerning buildings.

Serious errors were discovered concerning public procurement and service contracts. These errors are considered as red flags, because they could conceal cases of corruption and collusion and should be reported to OLAF.

1. How many reports has OLAF received from the ECA?

2. With its missions, representative offices and agencies, the Commission invests millions in buildings. In what way is transparency assured concerning projects and their selection and how can the Commission be sure that they reflect the climate of austerity and do not waste public money?

3. The costs of failed missions such as EULEX have been borne by European citizens. What further controls will the Commission put in place, given that its internal control has proved not to be up to the job, and what action does it intend to take to reduce the error rate in the coming years?