Toespraak Eurocommissaris Spidla over het cohesiefonds en begrotingscontrole (en)

SPEECH/08/101

Vladimír SPIDLA

Member of the European Commission with responsibility for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities

Introductory remarks at the hearing before Budgetary Control Committee meeting on 2006 budget discharge

Budgetary Control Committee

European Parliament, Brussels, 25 February 2008

Mr chairman, Honourable members,

The Cohesion Policy symbolises the important place solidarity occupies in the values of the Union. One of the roles of the management of the policy is to make this solidarity effective. The evaluations carried out on the policy regularly demonstrate that this is the case.

The other role is to ensure sound financial management in the implementation of the budget and, in so doing, to protect the financial interests of the Union. It is these concerns that are behind the Commission's Action Plan.

As Mrs Hübner i indicated, I will elaborate on some of the concrete measures we are now taking. They are directly linked to the situation of 2006, given that they foresee the concrete application of the recommendations that the Court has made in its Annual Report which is the basis for this discharge procedure, as well as some other recent recommendations of the Court.

Firstly there are measures focused on the main risk area in the Member States, the first level controls performed by the Managing Authorities. On the one hand, we will step up the training and guidance we give to Member States. At the same time we will target our future audit work on the control systems of programmes which we consider to present a high risk.

Where this audit work reveals serious problems, we will speed up our application of the procedures for suspension and correction by the Commission to the maximum possible under the current regulations, in order to correct the deficiencies. In my view, the key words in this respect are "rapidity" and "certainty". If Member States are sure that the Commission will act, the incentive for them to work to reduce errors will be much the greater.

At the same time we are taking action to improve the reporting Member States make to the Commission on financial corrections they themselves are making. It is of great importance to get accurate figures on their corrections resulting from audits by the Commission and the Court and those initiated and applied by Member States. We stand ready to launch infringement procedures against those Member States which consistently fail to live up to their obligations.

We know that the closure process for the 2000-2006 programmes is a key element in eliminating errors. We have already issued guidance to Member States in 2006, and will back this up with further preventive controls of the bodies responsible for the closure. At the same time, we will put in place effective internal procedures to make sure that the closure is a rigorous process acting as a final filter of errors in payments.

Finally, I should mention the simplification actions the Commission has proposed for the 2007-2013 period. For instance, for the ESF a flat rate for indirect costs can be applied. The Commission has made it clear that Member States should use these options, as indeed the Court recommends.

For the 2007-2013 period, we have a much better set of legal tools to do the job all round. For instance, Member States will no longer receive interim payments before the Commission is satisfied on the set up of their management and control systems.

There are therefore good grounds for believing that the execution of these actions will lead to a downward trend in the level of error and an increase in the level of recoveries.

I emphasise however that positive results can only be fully achieved with the cooperation of the Member States. We are counting on your support to pass on the message to them that European cohesion policy can only fully play its role when funds are managed and controlled in a more rigorous and transparent way.