Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-11-11-Speech-4-009"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20101111.3.4-009"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spoken text |
"Mr President, two days ago, President Caldeira and I already had the opportunity to exchange our views and to discuss the Court’s annual report with the members of the Committee on Budgetary Control. I would like here to outline the main points of the discussion and the very first conclusions.
Before entering the heart of the matter, I would like to recall the fruitful dialogue between the auditor, the Court and the audit team in the Commission and to thank President Caldeira for this excellent cooperation. I am pleased with the Court’s recognition of progress made; I see indeed many positive messages; I also see some criticism and it is the Commission’s commitment to closely follow up on all the Court’s recommendations.
The main messages of the Court’s report are key for the Commission’s own assessment of the way it assumes its responsibility in managing the EU budget.
Firstly, for the third year in a row, the annual accounts have received an unqualified positive opinion. The Court has evaluated the EU accounts as giving a true and fair view without any reservation. The Commission is, of course, very satisfied with this result as it confirms the lasting effects of our accounting reform. However, the Court rightly highlights certain weaknesses. While none of these affects the Court’s unqualified opinion, the Commission is determined to address these weaknesses and therefore continues to improve its day-to-day accounting practices. With regard to the legality and regularity of transactions, I am pleased that the positive trend in the reduction of the overall error rate continued in 2009.
Revenue and commitments for the entire budget are legal and regular in all material respects. More than 95% of payments made from the EU budget are free from error. This verdict is a positive sign that our efforts to further improve control are having a concrete impact. This has been achieved mainly thanks to a substantial reduction of the error rate in cohesion; this progress reflects the Commission’s enhanced supervisory role through the ex-ante assessment of management and control systems of the Member States. It also reflects the merits of a rigorous approach in either interrupting or suspending payments where problems were identified.
Finally, in its report, the Court recognises the higher quality of the information about recoveries provided by the Commission, as disclosed in the accounts. The increase in the value of funds recovered from projects where errors were found or from national authorities responsible is indeed another sign of this Commission’s determination. However, I share the Court’s view that the Member States’ reporting is not yet satisfactory and the Commission will pursue its efforts to remedy this situation for the existing programmes, and also for the next generation of programmes and the shared management.
I fully share the caution of President Caldeira when he warns of possible oscillations of the error rate, in particular in cohesion, in the future. I also agree with the Court when it points out the weaknesses of the Member States’ systems and some other issues in shared management. In my view, the way forward includes the design of cost-effective control mechanisms; the simplification of eligibility rules where their complexity is an obvious source of errors; and the improvement of the quality of the information provided by the Member States regarding financial corrections and recoveries.
But this list is not exhaustive. Our discussion on Tuesday showed that there are other challenges before us, for instance, a greater accountability for the key financial actors, in particular, the Member States, and a cost-effective control policy based on risk and performance. Moreover, in preparing the budget review, I have promoted the new focus on impact rather than input through the definition of clear and measurable objectives and key performance indicators. I presented last May my agenda on discharge, audit and anti-fraud for 2010-2014 in the Budgetary Control Committee of this House. This agenda outlined the key strategic objectives and concrete steps which the Commission will take to move further towards a positive Court statement of assurance. In the light of the Court’s 2009 annual report, this agenda remains fully relevant for our future actions.
To conclude, I am pleased that the 2009 annual report corroborates that our efforts bear results. It constitutes an important and timely input to our reflection on how to achieve a more effective and efficient financial management of the EU budget which should guide us in preparing the next generation of programmes."@en1
|
| lpv:unclassifiedMetadata | |
| lpv:videoURI |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples