3.7.87 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 175/7 
COURT OF AUDITORS 
OPINION No 3/87 
of the Court of Auditors of the European Communities on a proposal for a Council Regulation 
amending Regulation (EEC) No 729/70 on the financing of the common agricultural policy 
with regard to the system of advances in the Guarantee Section of the European Agricultural 
Guidance and Guarantee Fund 
(87/C 175/07) 
THE COURT OF AUDITORS OF THE EUROPEAN 
COMMUNITIES, 
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European 
Economic Community, and in particular Article 206 (a) 
thereof, 
Having regard to the Commission's proposal ('), 
Having regard to the Council's request for an 
opinion (2), 
Whereas the stated long-term objective is to achieve a 
system of the sort recommended by the Court on several 
occasions, whereby expenditure would still be validated 
by the Member States whilst the funds would be paid by 
the Commission directly to the paying agencies, after 
being charged in detail to the Community budget (3); 
Whereas the sole objective of the Commission's 
proposal, in the immediate future, is merely to abolish 
the system of advances to the Member States; 
Whereas the abolition of this system will not bring about 
any substantial changes as far as the control of the 
Member States' expenditure is concerned, since the 
payments will continue to be charged to the Community 
budget according to the same time limits, subject to the 
procedure for clearance of the accounts; 
Whereas, despite the more thorough reforms that have 
been announced, the recommended measure only aims, 
in fact, to ease the burden on the 1987 budget; 
(') Doc. COM(87) 212 final of 30 April 1987. 
(2) Letter of 27 May 1987. 
(') OJ C 287, 24. 11. 1983, paragraph 2.29; 
OJ C 348, 31.12. 1984, paragraph 4.26; 
OJ C 326, 16. 12. 1985, paragraph 4.9; 
OJ C 321, 15. 12. 1986, paragraph 4.13. Whereas, after this temporary relief has been granted, it 
is to be expected that this same burden will become 
greater on the day when the final stage described under 
section I, paragraph 6, of the Explanatory Memorandum 
has been reached; 
Whereas the relationship established by the Commission 
between this proposal and the financing of the 1987 
budget deficit is clear from the preliminary draft of sup­
plementary and amending budget No 1/87 for 1987 
(doc. COM(87) 234), and that, moreover, in the light of 
the 1987 budget, this proposal represents nothing more 
than a budgetary device, which does not constitute an 
appropriate response to the real nature of the out­
standing deficit and may well be in conflict with the 
principle of the annual nature of the budget; 
Whereas the proposal to delay clearance decisions by 11 
months, as compared with the date specified in the 
current legislation, should be rejected because it is 
tantamount to nullifying the coherence of the budgetary 
timetable by institutionalizing the regrettable practice of 
obliging the Parliament to grant discharge on provisional 
figures; 
Whereas, in addition, the backlog in the clearance of the 
accounts is being eliminated and this, once it has been 
completed, in conjunction with a different approach to 
the problem (extension of systems audit, intensification 
of preventive audits, introduction of accompanying 
controls, institution of computerized systems, etc.), 
should make it possible to observe the present legal 
deadline; 
Whereas the proposed option of paying interest (in part 
or in full) to certain Member States, without specifying 
the criteria to be applied, leaves an unjustifiably large 
discretionary margin and is likely to entail a sup­
plementary cost in the region of 300 to 400 million 
ECU, 
No C 175/8 Official Journal of the European Communities 3.7.87 
HAS ADOPTED THE FOLLOWING OPINION: 
The Court of Auditors confirms that it is in favour of a 
thorough transformation of the system for financing the 
Guarantee Section of the EAGGF by introducing a new 
system of direct payments to the paying agencies which 
would go much further than a mere abolition of the 
present system of advances, such as is aimed at by this 
proposal. 
As regards the details of the proposal, the Court is 
opposed to the suggestion that clearance decisions should be delayed by 11 months as compared with the 
current legislation (Article 1 (2)) and also to the 
proposed option of paying interest, partially or in full, to 
certain Member States (Article 1 (4)). 
This opinion was adopted by the Court of Auditors at its 
meeting of 10 June 1987. 
For the Court of Auditors 
Marcel MART 
President