Verbatim report of proceedings

Wednesday, 26 October 2016 - Strasbourg

Presentation of the Court of Auditors' annual report - 2015 (debate)

  Richard Ashworth (ECR). – Mr President, having participated for a number of years in these debates, I can say that this report gives some encouragement and, as such, I would say bears evidence that the Commission’s efforts are beginning to bear fruit. I compliment the Commissioner.

However, there are three points which I would make. Firstly, that 3.8%, as said earlier, is still too high. Errors invariably relate to the level of complexity and so I welcome the Commissioner’s simplification proposals. Secondly, I would say that the level of error in the Member States remains persistently a problem and I call on those governments to give greater urgency to compliance. Thirdly, while this report is, by definition, about compliance, I encourage the Commission to give equal weight to outcomes and performance. Too often we lack real clarity in objectives of EU spending and in consequence we run the risk of weakness in value for money and weakness in added value.