Inleiding door David Bostock bij de Europese Rekenkamer over "Intelligente Energie 2003-2006" (en)

ECA/08/17

Brussels, 23 September 2008

PRESS STATEMENT

by ECA Member Mr David Bostock

Introduction to the European Court of Auditors' Special Report No 7/2008 on "Intelligent Energy 2003-2006"

Special Report "Intelligent Energy 2003-2006" examines, in turn, the use made of EU funds, the successes and limitation of monitoring and evaluation, and the overhead costs for both the Commission and for participants of an EU scheme aimed at promoting energy efficiency and the use of renewable energy. The report makes a series of recommendations aimed at improving the design of similar programmes in the future, maximising the value of monitoring and evaluation, and containing overhead costs.

David Bostock, UK Member of the Court of Auditors, commented today at a press briefing as follows:

"This is a balanced report. We make a number of positive observations - pointing out, for example that the new Executive Agency has been well-received by participants.

"But we also identify a number of weaknesses. Perhaps the most significant are that the scheme was not well-focussed, that evaluation and monitoring did not provide the Commission with view of the overall quality and design of the scheme, and that administrative costs (including overhead costs borne by participants) amounted to a substantial part of the total budget.

"We have made a number of constructive recommendations on the design, monitoring and evaluation, and analysis of costs. These are recommendations that we hope the Commission will be able to apply to similar programmes, in this field and in others, in the future."

European Court of Auditors

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