NSI- The NSI has sent the calculations to the Commission on GNI reservations for the years 2007 to 2013.

Ministry of Labour and Social Policy (MLSP): Not applicable to the Operational Programme ‘Human Resource Development’ 2007-2013. No errors were identified during the audit.

At the last GNI Committee meeting held 21-22 October 2015, a review of the reservations issued for inclusion in the GDP/GNI figures was carried out for each Member State. A timetable was also presented for carrying out additional verification missions in the countries identified as being most at risk of failing to meet their commitments – Latvia, Poland and Greece. Supplementary questions were sent to Bulgaria about the reservation for the PIM method. At present, the NSI is waiting for an official reply from Eurostat regarding the inclusion of all the reservations made in the figures.

Under Article 2(2) of Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1287/2003 of 15 July 2003 on the harmonisation of gross national income at market prices, by 22 September each year, Member States must provide the Commission (Eurostat), in the context of national accounting procedures, with figures for GNI and its components, and a report on the quality of GNI data. The questionnaire sent in September 2015 contains information concerning GNI figures for the period 2002–2014. In addition to the most recent data available, the questionnaire contains information about data submitted by Member States in the previous year. The GNI questionnaire is accompanied by the corresponding GNI quality report, as an integral part of it, where Member States are required to provide information about any changes in the sources and methods used to compile national accounts data, changes in estimate revision policies and an explanation. In the Questionnaire and GNI Quality Report sent in September 2015, the NSI submitted information about all reservations and recommendations issued.

National Statistical Institute (NSI): On the basis of Eurostat methodology and verification missions and their findings with follow-up recommendations and reservations on the data to be developed and implemented by September 2015, the NSI developed and implemented the official reservations in the data. The reservations and recommendations from the findings which were implemented refer to: Additional adjustments for illegal activities: drugs and prostitution; FISIM; PIM method; Review of the stratification method for calculating imputed rent in the part concerning the calculation of intermediate consumption for repairs by owners; Property income to and from the Rest of the World; Coverage of originals, literature and entertainment works, music works and originals; VAT fraud; Implementation of the valuation methodology for own-produced software; Implementation of the valuation methodology for own-produced software for government, NPIs and financial undertakings; In-kind revenue in urban transport, Bulgarian National Railways (BDZ).

It is not clear to the Netherlands why we are mentioned here and Malta and the UK are not.

Cyprus paid the increase of its contributions due to the above in three instalments. The last instalment was paid in September 2015.

Revisions of methods and sources during 2014 had large impacts on GNI figures

Ministry of Finance, Budget Directorate: Slovenia paid the amount due under the adjustment of the Member States’ national contributions on the basis of VAT resources and additional resources, amounting to EUR 8,063,933.32, on the first working day of February 2015, i.e. 02.02.2015.

Revisions of methods and sources during 2014 had large impacts on GNI figures

ELSTAT is continuing its work, in accordance with Eurostat's instructions, in order to address the concerns on the GNI/GDP.

The assessment of Eurostat is ongoing, following the visit of December 2015.

In addition, the data and documentation for the years 2002-2009 were sent in September 2015, according to the requirements of the programme

2008 and 2009 thoroughly, as well as the documentation forwarded. It is expected to provide a technical opinion on the lifting of a general reservation

In November 2014, a Eurostat mission visited ELSTAT and thoroughly checked the evidence for

research results and not on preliminary estimates, since the final research evidence was available and the required quality checks had been performed.

It should be noted that the data for 2008 and 2009 and the supporting documentation sent in August 2014 are based on

ELSTAT sent data for the years 2008 and 2009 to Eurostat in August 2014.

Greece: action taken: YES ; action completed: NO ; Completion date: In cooperation with Eurostat.

By way of illustration, in 2013, the year on which the ECA has focused its audit work, all the undertakings that were the subject of notifications from central services to regional services affecting the European Union’s financial interests were ultimately checked.

Having established this principle, the problem that the ECA seems to be raising over the fact that the system may mean that high-risk undertakings are left unchecked due to lack of resources in the Office to which they are attached whereas other lower-risk undertakings are checked because the competent Office has sufficient resources to do this, would only arise if the selection of undertakings ultimately carried out by the central services were to be left unchecked due to lack of resources in the regional services responsible for carrying out the checks. However, the actual situation reveals that the vast majority of cases notified by the central to the regional services are ultimately subject to verification. This means that although the risk identified by the ECA of higher-risk undertakings being left unchecked cannot be ruled out completely, practical experience shows that this risk is not present, or at least does not have a significant impact on the efficiency of the control system.

It is justifiable to give the regional services the final say on the matter because they are responsible for allocating the workload of the Office as a whole between its different units and services. They also have a more direct and immediate knowledge of the subjective and objective risk profile affecting operators in their area. This never implies that higher risk enterprises might be left unchecked. Because they are a central service, the Customs and Excise Department investigation units are the official interlocutor with EU bodies and have the power to carry out actions to obtain information by serving formal notices on any person or entity throughout Spain. Because they also monitor control activities in the various regional departments, they are the national authority in possession of most information and they initially select the highest-risk undertakings.

The Spanish system is based on the presence of research units at central level. These identify undertakings that may be verified by the regional services, which bear ultimate responsibility for the selection and may in turn select other taxpayers.

Austria: action taken: YES ; action completed: NO ; Completion date: An appropriate reply to the Commission is being prepared.

The CHIEF system is to be replaced and the strategy is to integrate post clearance functionality into the new service, providing an end-to-end audit trail within the one system. The new service is expected to be delivered in 2017. Once the full system is operational there will no longer be a requirement for the B Account to include so many complex and manual processes.

The UK accept that the current procedure for preparing the B Account statements is complex and its manual nature has led to occasional mistakes. However, lessons have been learnt and the methodology and guidance improved and streamlined as a result.

The debts in the B account that have not been challenged are considered for the purpose of calculating the percentage referred to. We understand that this criterion is not entirely accurate, but given the special circumstances arising in the management of the B accounts, seeking to use statistical data from earlier years would also give rise to a figure that does not correspond to the actual situation. We completely rule out examination on a case-by-case basis due to the high workload this would entail for the Spanish administration.

The national authorities are making every effort to correct all the errors detected in the audits.

This comment does not require Sweden to take action.

Ministry of Finance, Budget Directorate: Slovenia paid the amount due under the adjustment of the Member States’ national contributions on the basis of VAT resources and additional resources, amounting to EUR 8,063,933.32, on the first working day of February 2015, i.e. 02.02.2015.

UCRBUE-MFP- These amounts correspond to those adopted in amending budget No 7/2014. UCRBUE

The observation is in line with facts and does not require comment.

In 2014 only one ECA audit was carried out in Latvia relating to the EU fund 2007–2013 planning period operational programme 3 Infrastructure and Services. The audit drew just one conclusion, namely that the Major Project application (pursuant to Article 39 of Regulation (EC) No 1083/2006) was not approved within a three-month period. This observation was not addressed to the Latvian authorities, but to the European Commission.

ISTAT completed the action linked to the GNI reservations (ESA 95) in September 2014, when the new ESA 2010 regulation was adopted. However, as of 31 December 2014 the nine reservations for Italy had not been lifted.

We made available the full amount of correction to the VAT and GNI balance, we also made the VAT and GNI-based payment.

The amount of the adjustment (- EUR 34 million) is correct. The total budget (EUR 1 669 million) is also correct as concerns GNP and VAT payments, excluding the adjustments made in December 2015 (- EUR 34 million), and the 'opt-out' (+ EUR 1 million).

This table appears to present factual circumstances and it is therefore not relevant to comment on whether action has been taken or not.

Table 4.2.

Member states GNI/GNP reservations