EN Official Journal of the European Union C 22/1

Council conclusions on European Court of Auditors’ Special Report No 4/2010:

‘Is the design and management of the mobility scheme of the Leonardo da Vinci programme likely to lead to effective results?’

2011/C 22/01

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

HAVING REGARD to the Council conclusions on improving the examination of special reports drawn up by the Court of Auditors in the context of the discharge procedure (1);

RECALLING that Leonardo da Vinci is a subprogramme of the Lifelong Learning Programme (2007-2013), the implementation and monitoring of which are the overall responsibility of the European Commission in cooperation with national authorities;

AND RECOGNISING that mobility projects constitute the largest part of that subprogramme;

1. WELCOMES the Court of Auditors’ Special Report No. 4/2010 assessing the design and management of the Leonardo da Vinci mobility scheme under the Lifelong Learning Programme (2).

2. TAKES NOTE of the European Commission's replies accompanying the report.

3. COMMENDS the action already undertaken to improve the Commission's approach to managing the Leonardo da Vinci programme.

4. ACKNOWLEDGES the Court of Auditors’ overall conclusion that, while further efforts need to be undertaken in order to improve the functioning of the Leonardo da Vinci mobility scheme, the design and management of the scheme could indeed lead to effective results.

5. NEVERTHELESS ENDORSES the recommendations contained in the Court's report and INVITES THE COMMISSION, with regard to both the current and future programmes, to: (a) improve the system for reporting on the results of the Leonardo da Vinci programme, and establish a comprehensive system for measuring its impact whilst minimising the overall administrative burden, notably by finalising the relevant applications and tools without further delay; (b) provide the national authorities with more qualitative feedback aimed at providing a concise view of national implementation and highlighting strengths and weaknesses; (c) improve the application assessment procedure, for instance by further developing the assessment handbook for evaluators, and by evaluating the cost effectiveness of assessment checks on applications when conducting its quality and impact monitoring visits to participating countries; (d) improve its quality and impact monitoring system, and coordinate this with the annual activity reporting currently carried out by the national agencies, whilst endeavouring to avoid any increase in their workload; (e) align the structure of the work programme and the annual report, so as to enable a comparison of results against planned performance; (f) explore options for ensuring a user-friendly and effective partner-search tool designed to facilitate the placement of foreign participants; (g) inform the Council no later than June 2012 of the progress made in implementing these recommendations.

6. INVITES BOTH THE MEMBER STATES AND THE COMMISSION to take account of the recommendations contained in the special report within the broader context of preparations for, and discussions on, the next generation of EU programmes in the field of education and training.

(1) Doc. 7515/00 FIN 127 of 3 April 2000 + COR 1, dated 12 April 2000.

(2) Special Report No 4/2010: Is the design and management of the mobility scheme of the Leonardo da Vinci programme likely to lead to effective results? (Doc. 14619/10 FIN 452 EDUC 160 SOC 624, dated 7 October 2010).