Rekenkamer: EC moet speciaal landbouwbeleid ultraperifere regio's meer decentraal maken (en)
Luxembourg, 22 December 2010
Special Report: Specific measures for agriculture in favour of the outermost regions of the Union and the smaller Aegean islands1
The specific measures for agriculture in favour of the outermost regions of the European Union and the smaller Aegean islands were created to take account of the regions’ structural, social and economic situation. The European Court of Auditors i has assessed the effectiveness of the specific measures after their reform in 2006. The reform involved a shift towards greater regional participation, and to decentralisation and flexibility in decision-making, on the basis of programmes presented by Member States for approval by the European Commission
In general, the Court noted that the specific measures were effective and extremely important for agriculture in the regions concerned. However, the Court identified a number of weaknesses in the management of the arrangements which provide room for further improvements in the specific measures.
The Court concludes that the new bottom-up, decentralised approach introduced by the 2006 reform of the specific measures has not been sufficiently applied in order to improve the effectiveness of the existing measures. During the programming and approval phase of the programmes, over a period of only six months, the Commission gave priority to the task of monitoring the compliance and consistency of the programmes rather than assuming its role as a manager, and thus actively contributing to the design of the programmes so as to ensure they were effective. This finding also applies to the procedure for modifying the programmes for subsequent years.
As regards the implementation of the programmes, the Court identified measures or actions which are likely to be at best partly effective as a result of their design. In addition, the existing control systems in the Member States concerned are not always suited to the diverse nature of the specific measures.
The Commission does not monitor the effectiveness of the specific measures regularly enough; it mainly confines itself to evaluating the measures over a five-year period. The annual implementation reports provided by the Member States are not harmonised enough to constitute a management information system for the Commission.
On the basis of its observations, the Court makes recommendations intended to help the Commission and the Member States concerned improve the way the specific measures are managed.
1 : The purpose of this press release is to give a summary of the Special Report adopted by the Court of Auditors which is available on the Court’s Internet site ( www.eca.europa.eu ) and will be published shortly in a printed format.
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