Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-05-14-Speech-2-262"
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"en.20020514.12.2-262"2
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"Mr Färm, I would first like to point out that implementation in the area you have mentioned, external aid, has significantly improved over the last two years. Last year, in 2001, nearly all available payment appropriations were implemented. This is really a major change compared with previous years. This is an area where reforms and above all the measures taken by my colleagues Chris Patten and Poul Nielson are really having a positive effect.
In response to the second part of your question, the Member States are certainly interested in seeing Structural Fund monies spent as well now. So you are quite right, on the one hand the Finance Ministers are of course pleased if money flows back into their coffers in any given budget year, but on the other hand it is those very same Finance Ministers who prepare forecasts about how much is drawn down from the structural funds in any year. So on the one hand we have forecasts and the enormous discrepancy between those forecasts and final out-turns, and on the other hand the fact that it is very much welcome when funds flow back.
At present we are considering how we can use instruments to make the forecasts on which we base our proposals more specific and perhaps also more binding.
I would like to point out that, in the case of measures to promote the development of rural areas, if the Member States' forecasts of their requirements deviate by a certain percentage from what prove to be their actual requirements, then that is deducted the following year as a kind of penalty. This is a very draconian arrangement, but it has been shown to work.
My colleague Commissioner Barnier has also been working on how we can improve the discrepancy currently existing in the Structural Funds."@en1
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