Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-05-14-Speech-2-260"
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"en.20020514.12.2-260"2
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".
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, my response to Mr Färm's question is as follows: in budget year 2001 commitment appropriations totalling 97% were implemented. This was a clear improvement as compared with the previous year, when the implementation rate for commitment appropriations was 82%. However, the picture was quite different for payment appropriations, where the utilisation rate of funds available was 82% in 2001, that is below the already low rate of the previous year, 2000, which was 88%.
The surpluses in budget year 2001 were chiefly due to inadequate utilisation of Structural Fund appropriations of EUR 9.4 billion, cohesion fund monies and funds under the pre-accession instruments – ISPA, Sapard and Phare. However, another not insignificant contribution to the 2001 budget surplus came from savings in the agricultural sector totalling some EUR 1.9 billion. In the case of the Structural Funds, the chief reason for underutilisation was delay in the introduction of programmes under the new 2000-2006 planning period. Two factors combined in the case of Sapard and ISPA – teething problems with new activities and setting up the necessary administrative structures in the accession states.
The Commission is very concerned about this trend and has already taken a variety of preventive measures to strengthen the measures adopted in 2001. These include calling on the Member States, who are responsible for implementing the programmes, to strictly observe the implementation plan for the period 2000 to 2006, including the n+2 rule under Article 31 of Regulation 1260/1999. This rule applies to individual programmes with effect from 31 December 2002, otherwise with effect from 31 December 2003.
Commissioner Barnier specifically drew the Member States' attention to this rule in his letter of 21 November 2001. The Commission regularly updates the Member States about commitments where there is a risk that this rule could apply. The most recent update was in April 2002. The Member States were given a deadline of 31 March 2003 to submit their applications for final payments for programmes in the last planning period, that is the 1994-1999 programme planning period.
In the case of the Cohesion Fund, any decision on financing will set a binding deadline for presenting these payment appropriations. The Commission has indicated to the Member States that it is fundamentally opposed to any extension of these deadlines. Implementation of Structural Fund measures is in future to be more strictly monitored over the course of the year than has been the case up to now, in particular by means of the new payment forecasts to be prepared by the Member States.
These forecasts are now notified to the budgetary authority as part of the budget procedure. Furthermore, the Commission will notify those Member States concerned that they run the risk of automatic cancellation of commitments that have remained unspent for excessively long periods. Estimates of Member States' requirements for the budget year 2001 under the Structural Funds in terms of payments due – excluding advance payments – were EUR 15 billion higher than the amount actually drawn by the Member States.
As regards other budget lines, the Commission is anxious to refine its forecasting of requirements, and to further extend the implementation plan for the 2002 budget, so that an early warning system would identify any discrepancies between implementation needs and funds available in good time. This plan should enable budget implementation to be monitored over the course of the entire year, and a report will then be made to the budgetary authority in September and November 2002, as we have already promised you."@en1
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