[autom.vertaling] Het communautaire begroting besteden nog naar voren gebogen aan onregelmatigheden (en)

For the twelfth year running, the Budgetary Control Committee heard the Court of Auditors give a negative Statement of Assurance (DAS) for three quarters of Community budget spending in 2005. MEPs responded by saying that the start of the budget discharge procedure already has "an air of déjà-vu".

Hubert Weber, President of the Court of Auditors, said in his statement to the committee that, thanks to control and surveillance systems, the risks were managed satisfactorily in 2005 for a number of areas: revenue, administrative expenditure and the pre-accession strategy, except the Sapard programme. The court was unable to give a positive DAS for other areas, namely the common agricultural policy (for expenditure not subject to the Integrated Administration and Control System, structural measures, internal policies and external action.

The court notes that payments are still prone to significant errors and that the Commission, the Member States and the beneficiary countries must step up their efforts to implement effective control and management systems.

The court also notes that bodies responsible for implementation in the countries of the 2004 enlargement and the candidate countries are still open to significant risks.

According to Salvador Garriga (EPP-ED, ES), the MEP who will draft Parliament's budget discharge report on the 2005 financial year, "the regulatory complexities" are a major problem. He therefore calls for payment procedures under the Community budget to be simplified, and for this to be part of the forthcoming negotiations on revision of the EU's Financial Regulation.

The general rapporteur on the 2007 budget, James Elles (EPP-ED, UK), was surprised to find no trace of the idea supported by Parliament of having "national declarations" to establish a level of responsibility for expenditure jointly managed by the Commission and the Member States. Overall, however, MEPs displayed a noticeable scepticism: the broad impression of déjà-vu (voiced by Bart Staes, Greens/EFA, BE) among others, was accompanied by a note of realism regarding the lack of progress on the categories of expenditure for which the court cannot certify the legality of transactions.

Lastly, MEPs were unhappy that they had received the report at the last minute, whereas the Commission was already fully aware of its contents.

The Court of Auditors will present its 2005 annual report in Strasbourg in the week of 13 November. The first debate on the 2005 discharge will take place in Brussels on 20 November in the presence of Commissioners Kallas, Grybauskaite and Hubner.

23/10/2006

Committee on Budgetary Control

Chair : Szabolcs Fazakas (PES, HU)