Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-11-15-Speech-2-014"
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"en.20051115.6.2-014"2
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".
Mr President, I should like to thank the President of the Court, Mr Weber, for the fair presentation of the 2004 annual report and the Members of the Parliament for giving me the opportunity to give the Commission’s first reaction.
We will go ahead with our proposals. Our action plan towards an integrated internal control framework will be published next month. It is based on the results of the ‘gap assessment’ between the control framework in place for all types of budgetary expenditure and the general principles defined by the Court in its opinion No 2/2004 on a single audit. We hope that the legislation being finalised for the new series of programmes in the years after 2006 will reflect the new thinking. The proposed revisions to the Financial Regulation and the implementing rules also reflect this thinking.
Court sampling reveals substantial errors that we are of course concerned to reduce to a minimum. To do so, we are focusing and seeking assurance on the procedures for managing the risk of irregularity. This is the way to ensure, within a limited resource base, that the costs of extra controls provide added benefits in terms of reducing risks of error.
I would especially mention here two quotations from the speech made by the President of the Court: ‘in structural matters, the Court found weaknesses in the management and control systems in the Member States across all programmes’; and the second quotation: ‘in the area of internal policies the Court notes that the errors often stem from complicated rules’.
Certainly I agree with these remarks. Need for simplification of rules was repeated yesterday at the meeting of the Committee on Budgetary Control but, if I look for the individuals who are responsible for the large number and complexity of the programmes and rules, I find hardly anyone. Everybody talks about the need for simplification but, when business goes into detail, it is not so simple any more. A large part of the complexity often comes not from the officials but from clients, policy makers, politicians in Member States and Members of the European Parliament. The changes are often resisted by the same players.
I use this opportunity to call on all policy makers, when the creation of another goal, plan and programme is under consideration, to look critically at aspects of fiscal management and the need to control and audit these programmes.
There is a lot more to be said, but the budget discharge process is now only at the beginning and within the coming months Members of Parliament will have all the answers to their questions. Parliament and the Commission will work together to finalise the process of discharge of the 2004 European budget.
The Court’s report is fair and balanced: it says that the Commission is having success in implementing tangible improvements in its management systems, but that many areas still need to be improved.
The Commission welcomes the Court’s positive opinion on the reliability of the accounts, which faithfully reflect the revenue and expenditure of the Communities for the year and their financial position at the year-end. The Court has only one reservation, which has been resolved through the introduction of the accrual-based accounting system in 2005. This means that the accounts met their primary objective and that the accounts have been drawn up according to the provisions of the Financial Regulation in force.
The Court gives a positive assurance on the accounts, on revenue, on commitments, on pre-accession aid, and on administrative expenditure. It is also satisfied with EDF development aid, some EUR 2.4 billion outside the budget.
The Court also notes two key improvements since last year: in a large part of the common agricultural policy and in aid to candidate countries to the EU. The system used to check much expenditure under the common agricultural policy – the integrated administration and control system (IACS) – is considered an effective control system in limiting the risk of irregular expenditure, when properly applied. This system will be applied to an even greater percentage of agricultural expenditure in the coming years.
So simplifying greatly, in addition to the several positive assurances I have already mentioned, the Court is now reasonably satisfied with the systems of control and spending in an increasing part of the EU budget, roughly estimated to represent one third of the budget. This is tangible and quantifiable progress towards a positive statement of assurance.
The conclusions of the Court have not always been fully understood by the general public and the media. I liked very much the remark in the President of the Court’s speech that makes it clear that the Court’s qualified opinion on certain areas cannot be interpreted as meaning all transactions of the 2004 payment budget are affected by error, nor can it be interpreted as an indicator of fraud. We must all understand the comprehensive nature of this large budget discharge exercise. This procedure shows that the Commission is accountable to directly elected Members of Parliament.
This may be the eleventh consecutive non-positive Statement of Assurance, but I hope it is clear from my initial remarks this does not imply that we are not making progress. Members of Parliament have pointed out repeatedly that the Commission alone cannot ‘produce’ a positive DAS. The 2003 discharge resolution gave very valuable guidance on how to further improve, and we are working to do that. As you know, this Commission has proposed a ‘roadmap to an integrated internal control framework’, looking for support in Parliament and Council.
While I am very grateful for Parliament’s support on the roadmap, the ECOFIN Council’s statement of 8 November was not as radical as the Commission had hoped it would be; political declarations at national level were not accepted. But a cascade of operational management declarations by payment and similar agencies is not an impossible goal, though a national synthesis report for each sector, similar to that which the Commission draws up on the basis of the annual activity reports of its directors-general, will be more difficult to achieve."@en1
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