EN Official Journal of the European Union C 216/1

OPINION No 4/2007

on a draft Commission Regulation (EC) amending Regulation (EC) No 1653/2004 on a standard financial regulation for the executive agencies pursuant to Council Regulation (EC) No 58/2003 laying down the statute for executive agencies to be entrusted with certain tasks in the management of Community programmes [SEC(2007) 492 Final]

(2007/C 216/01)

THE COURT OF AUDITORS OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Communities,

Having regard to Council Regulation (EC) No 58/2003 of 19 December 2002 laying down the statute for executive agencies to be entrusted with certain tasks in the management of Community programmes (1), and in particular Article 15 thereof,

Having regard to Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1995/2006 of 13 December 2006 amending Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1605/2002 on the Financial Regulation applicable to the general budget of the European Communities (2),

Having regard to Commission Regulation (EC) No 1653/2004 of 21 September 2004 on a standard financial regulation for the executive agencies pursuant to Council Regulation (EC) No 58/2003 laying down the statute for executive agencies to be entrusted with certain tasks in the management of Community programmes (3),

Having regard to the proposal for a draft Commission Regulation (EC) amending Commission Regulation (EC) No 1653/2004 on a standard financial regulation for the executive agencies pursuant to Council Regulation (EC) No 58/2003 laying down the statute for executive agencies to be entrusted with certain tasks in the management of Community programmes (4),

Having regard to the request for an opinion submitted to the Court of Auditors by the Commission on 25 April 2007,

HAS ADOPTED THE FOLLOWING OPINION:

1. The objective of the draft regulation is to amend the standard financial regulation of the executive agencies (5) (hereinafter referred to as ‘standard financial regulation’), following the amendments made in Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1995/2006 of 13 December 2006 to Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1605/2002 on the Financial Regulation applicable to the general budget of the European Communities, and in the light of the acquired experience of the existing executive agencies.

2. Article 20 of the draft regulation provides that, in addition to transmitting budgets and amending budgets for information to the budgetary authority, the Court of Auditors and the Commission, and publishing them on the websites of the agencies concerned, a ‘summary of the budgets and amending budgets shall be published in the Official Journal of the European Union within three months of their adoption’. Having regard to the principle of budgetary transparency, however, it would be appropriate to specify the scope and content of the summary to be published by the executive agencies.

3. The first paragraph of Article 27 stipulates that ‘all financial actors (…) and any other person involved in budget implementation, management, audit or control shall be prohibited from taking any measures of budget implementation which may bring their own interests into conflict with those of the agency or of the Communities’. The term ‘of budget implementation’ (as in Article 52 of the Financial Regulation) should be deleted or this Article redrafted, as persons involved in auditing and control work should not take budget implementation measures.

4. The French version of the new Article 42(a) of the draft standard financial regulation lays down that the Agency should draw up a list of créances communautaires (entitlements of the agency) stating the names of the debtors and the amount of the debt, where the debtor has been ordered to pay by a Court decision having the force of res judicata and where no, or no significant, payment has been made for one year following its pronouncement (6). The expression ‘créances communautaires’ (entitlements of the agency) is excessively general; it should be specified that the entitlements concerned are only those included in the executive agencies' operating budget.

This Opinion was adopted by the Court of Auditors in Luxembourg at its meeting of 12 July 2007. For the Court of Auditors Hubert WEBER President

(1) OJ L 11, 16.1.2003, p. 1.

(2) OJ L 390, 30.12.2006, p. 1.

(3) OJ L 297, 22.9.2004, p. 6.

(4) SEC(2007) 492 final of 25.4.2007.

(5) Commission Regulation (EC) No 1653/2004 (OJ L 297, 22.9.2004, p. 6).

(6) There is a similar provision in the Implementing rules of the general Financial Regulation (see Article 81(4) of the Implementing Rules).