Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-12-02-Speech-4-009"
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"en.20041202.4.4-009"2
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".
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, Commissioners, on 15 November 2004, I presented the European Court of Auditors' Annual Report for 2003 to the Committee on Budgetary Control.
In the Chapters on internal policies, external actions and pre-accession expenditure, errors affecting the legality and regularity of the transactions have also been detected.
For this reason, and in spite of the considerable efforts made by the European Institutions in recent years, the European Court of Auditors recommends that a greater effort should be made as regards the management and control systems in these areas.
The Court stresses once again that the areas of shared, indirect or decentralised management are the ones where most errors continue to appear and that it is in these areas that a greater effort needs to be made.
In this regard, Court Opinion No 2/2004 on the single audit model, to which I shall refer later in greater detail, is a concrete proposal to improve the control systems which could in turn help to improve the management of EU funds in the Member States.
I shall now refer to the comments on budgetary management. The total payments budget in the financial year 2003 was EUR 98 000 million; payments amounting to EUR 90 500 million were made, that is, an increase of approximately 6% when compared with the financial year 2002.
The budget surplus fell considerably, from EUR 15 000 million in 2001 to EUR 7 000 million in 2002 and EUR 5 500 million in 2003. Despite this improvement, the Court believes that the budget surplus is still high and is indicative of systematic problems which must be resolved by improving the budget estimate.
The main cause of the surplus is still the difference between estimated and actual expenditure. The Court points out that it would not be realistic to expect the budget to be implemented in full given that 80% of the EU budget is managed on a joint or decentralised basis and depends on the Member States for implementation.
Nevertheless, in the financial year 2003 the rate of implementation for payments was 92%, which is a considerable improvement when compared with the figure of 86% for the previous financial year.
As regards the budgetary management of the European Development Funds, we note that efforts have been made, with the revised form of the report on financial management, to improve the quality of information about the management for the financial year.
The Commission has made a considerable effort to reduce the volume of outstanding commitments. Furthermore, the implementation of payments has been affected by a shortfall in financial resources: EUR 270 million. In order to round off its report, the Commission should ensure that it reflects the costs of managing the European Development Funds.
I was able on that occasion to provide a detailed account of the findings and conclusions contained in our report. Today I should like to focus my presentation on the Court's findings in three areas: the statement of assurance, budgetary management and the process of reform of the Commission.
I shall end my presentation with a few words about the state of the administrative reform launched by the Commission in 2000.
In February 2004 the Commission published a report on the degree of implementation of the actions proposed in the White Paper on reform. The Court of Auditors recognises that the Commission has made progress with the new control framework but believes that the results are still not satisfactory as regards the implementation of the system.
In the Court's view, in the case of eight of the actions that had theoretically been completed by the end of 2003, including those relating to the minimum standards for internal control or the internal audit capability within each Directorate-General, the degree of implementation is still not satisfactory.
For this reason, the Court feels that in spite of the progress made the implementation of the Commission's internal control standards still cannot be considered sufficient to provide reasonable assurances as to the legality and regularity of the transactions. The Court urges the Commission to complete the task of implementing the new internal control system, especially in the areas of shared management, risk analysis and debt recovery.
Lastly, it should not be forgotten that the Commission's reform is based on the principle of responsible management, the rendering of accounts and the evaluation of results. To this end, in the financial year 2003 the European Commission presented, for the first time, an analysis of the reliability of its supervisory and control systems with regard to the legality and regularity of the underlying transactions. In this way, the Commission assumed management responsibility for the EU budget, as required by Article 274 of the EC Treaty.
The Commission reports that it is still unable to make an unconditional declaration in one key area of its management, the Structural Funds, a situation confirmed by the Court of Auditors' observations.
In other areas of management, the Commission relies on the declarations of the Directors-General, 21 of which contained reservations. These reservations limit the guarantees offered by the Directors-General in their declarations.
The Court also believes that the Commission's efforts and the progress it is making will not be sufficient unless they are also accompanied by an improvement in the audits of EU funds which are carried out by the various authorities responsible for managing the funds at national level. The European Court of Auditors addressed this theme in its Opinion No 2/2004, published last April, on the feasibility of introducing a single audit model, to which I referred at the beginning of my speech. This Opinion was delivered at the request of the European Parliament.
The purpose of the single audit model is to develop, within the European Union, an efficient and effective internal control framework guaranteeing the reliability of the findings and enabling them to be used by all parties taking part in control activities. This is a field in which the European institutions and the Member States, in cooperation with the national audit institutions, can work together very closely to develop a legal framework for improving the audit of EU funds.
Before I conclude my speech, I should like to depart from our agenda if I may. As you are aware, my term as President of the Court ends in January 2005. I will therefore have completed the three-year period which began with the presentation in the COCOBU of the Court’s work programme for 2002. During these three years, I have worked to promote and maintain the best possible working relationship with the European Parliament, principally through cooperation with its Committee on Budgetary Control. We have promoted more effective communication, exchanges of information and greater cooperation between our institutions. I believe that the overall result is positive and that every day the Court provides the Parliament with independent and professional assistance of ever-higher quality. This can only be achieved if the independence and roles of our respective institutions are respected.
Chapter 1 of the Court's Report contains the Statement of Assurance – the DAS – which is published in the Official Journal together with the Community's consolidated accounts.
In addition, the Court has undertaken an internal reform of its organisation and structure in order to make the institution more effective in the performance of its duties and to make a Court of 25 Members more flexible and efficient. The aim of this reform, which is a direct consequence of enlargement and of the Treaty of Nice, has been to ensure that the Court operates effectively within its legal framework.
At the same time, the Court has worked with the Audit Institutions of the new Member States to prepare them for their important role in providing liaison for the Court's audits in their respective States. These and other technical and human-resources measures will help us to continue to improve our work in an enlarged Europe. Today I believe that we can celebrate the achievement of these objectives.
This concludes my presentation. Many thanks, ladies and gentlemen, for your kind attention.
[Thank you very much]
As in the previous financial year, the Statement of Assurance is based on four pillars, which are the result of changes in the methodology employed by the Court in order to make the results of its work more solid. The four pillars are the following: firstly, the quality of the EU institutions' and the Member States' control systems; secondly, an examination of a sample of commitments and payments for each area of expenditure; thirdly, the annual declarations of the Directors-General of the Commission; and, fourthly, examining the work of other auditors.
As a result of this auditing work, the Court believes that the consolidated annual accounts for 2003 presented by the Commission were drawn up in accordance with the Financial Regulation. The accounts accurately reflect the revenue and expenditure for the financial year, and the financial situation of the Union, the sole exception being the recording of the transactions relating to the sundry debtors item.
As in previous years, the Court points out that, in 2003, the Commission's accounting system was unable to guarantee that all of its assets had been correctly recorded. The plan which the Commission adopted in 2002 to modernise its accounts is due to take effect in 2005. In the Court's view, the full implementation of all of the new rules and accounting plans will require a considerable effort on the part of the bodies whose accounts are to be consolidated.
As regards the legality and regularity of the transactions and as far as revenue, commitments and administrative expenditure are concerned, the Court believes that the underlying transactions are legal and regular.
As regards the other Chapters of the budget, the Court's observations concern general shortcomings in the supervisory systems and controls for the management of EU funds.
In the Chapter on agriculture, payments were again affected by material errors. In the field of structural measures, weaknesses in the Member States' management and control systems have persisted."@en1
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