No C 326/22 Official Journal of the European Communities 15. 12. 80 
II 
(Preparatory Acts) 
COURT OF AUDITORS 
Opinion of the Court of Auditors of the European Communities on the proposal for a 
Council Regulation laying down general rules for the supply as food aid of products other 
than cereals, skimmed-milk powder or butteroil to certain developing countries and 
specialized bodies 
THE COURT OF AUDITORS OF THE EUROPEAN 
COMMUNITIES, 
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the 
European Economic Community, and in particular 
Article 209 thereof, 
Having regard to the Council Decision of 28 August 
1980 to consult the Court of Auditors on a proposal 
for a Council Regulation laying down rules for the 
supply as food aid of products other than cereals, 
skimmed-milk powder or butteroil to certain 
developing countries and specialized bodies, the text 
of which is given in the Annex to document COM 
(80) 478 final, 
Whereas the document COM (80) 478 final contains 
two different texts, i.e.: 
(a) a draft resolution on the use of Community food 
aid to attain food security objectives in the 
developing countries, 
(b) a proposal for a Council Regulation laying 
down general rules for the supply as food aid of 
products other than cereals, skimmed-milk 
powder or butteroil to certain developing 
countries and specialized bodies; 
Whereas the opinion requested from the Court 
applies only to the proposed Regulation in document 
COM (80) 478 final, while the grounds for this new proposal can be found primarily in the wording of 
the draft resolution; 
Whereas the proposal for a Regulation submitted for 
opinion does not include certain useful provisions on 
the management of the aid which appeared in the 
1979 proposal for a Regulation on the management 
of food aid (as recapitulated in document COM (79) 
1 final), hereinafter called the proposal for a 
framework Regulation, on which the Court of 
Auditors delivered its opinion on 8 March 1979(!) 
and which has not yet been adopted by the 
Council; 
Whereas the proposal for a Regulation fails to define 
the concepts of exceptional cases and availability on 
the Community market on normal terms or delivery 
to the port of shipment and does not include the 
definition of emergency as given in the proposal for a 
framework Regulation; 
Whereas the proposal for a Regulation makes 
provision, where the products to be supplied are not 
subject to a common organization of the market, for 
a very general and inadequately defined possibility 
of derogating from nine essential Articles of the 
Financial Regulation; 
Whereas with regard to food aid the new 
Commission proposals in document COM (80) 478 
final do not take sufficient account of the audit 
(') OJ No C 139, 5.6. 1979 
15. 12. 80 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 326/23 
responsibilities of the Court of Auditors, which the 
latter has already had occasion to recall in its 
opinions of 26 October 1978 and 8 March 1979; 
Whereas the Community expenditure linked to the 
implementation of the food-aid programme must be 
clearly presented and properly classified in the 
budget, 
HAS ADOPTED THE FOLLOWING OPINION: 
The Court of Auditors 
— observes that the reference to the Council 
Decision of 22 March 1977 in the second recital to 
the proposed Regulation is to an unpublished 
Council document and that it is therefore 
impossible to establish a link between this 
document and the proposal for a Regulation; 
— is of the opinion that the fourth and seventh 
recitals to the proposed Regulation duplicate 
each other, at least in part; 
— regrets that the proposal for a Regulation is not 
accompanied by a revised version of the proposal 
for a framework Regulation at present before the 
Council, so that the link between the two pieces of 
legislation may be clearly established; 
Article 1 
— observes that this Article makes it legally possible 
to extend Community food aid to products other 
than cereals, skimmed-milk powder or butteroil. 
Article 2 
— is of the opinion that: 
(a) this Article should specify whether the 
Council decisions on the nature of the 
products referred to in Article 1 are long-term 
decisions or are taken for each individual aid 
programme; in the latter case rapid 
implementation will prove very 
problematical, particularly in emergencies; 
(b) the absence of provisions assigning 
responsibility for determining the quantities 
involved, the beneficiaries, or future 
programmes, is likely to give rise to conflicts 
of authority between the institutions and 
consequently to delays in implementing the 
aid. 
Articles 2 and 3 (2) 
— considers that whereas at present in an emergency 
a short procedure can be used, the procedure proposed in paragraph 3 of Article 3 requires a 
Council decision each time, and is therefore likely 
to take longer; 
Article 3 (I) 
— regrets that the proposed Regulation continues to 
use the concept of 'port of shipment' which, as 
stressed by the Court in its opinion of 8 March 
1979, lacks precision and is therefore likely to 
give rise to differing interpretations, whereas the 
Commission in Regulation (EEC) No 1974/80 of 
22 July 1980(0 abandoned this concept in order 
to bring its rules more into line with international 
commercial practice. 
— regrets that the proposed Regulation continues to 
use the concept of 'port of shipment' which, as 
stressed by the Court in its opinion of 8 March 
1979, lacks precision and is therefore likely to 
give rise to differing interpretations, whereas the 
Commission in Regulation (EEC) No 1974/80 of 
22 July 1980(0 abandoned this concept in order 
to bring its rules more into line with international 
commercial practice. 
Article 3 (2) 
— considers that: 
(a) a reference to a stage corresponding to the 
port of discharge in the case of landlocked 
countries should be added to the first 
indent, 
(b) the exclusion from Community financing of 
the distribution costs borne by the recipient 
country, as implied by the provisions of the 
second indent, may in certain cases, as the 
Court has observed in the past, be a cause of 
poor implementation; 
— is of the opinion that to this Article should be 
added a provision that rules be made laying down 
the general terms for the supply and 
transportation of the food aid referred to in 
Article 1, 
— as in its opinion of 8 March 1979, the Court: 
(a) recommends that both the general terms upon 
which aid is supplied and the clauses 
applicable to the recipients of Community aid 
make explicit reference to the audit 
responsibilities conferred upon the Court by 
Article 206 (a) of the EEC Treaty; 
(b) raises the question whether in the choice of 
carriers by sea (and certainly whenever the 
Community is responsible for transport 
beyond the fob stage) a system analogous to 
that used in aid procurement could not be 
applied, so that first priority is given to 
(i) OJ No L 192, 26. 7. 1980. 
No C 326/24 Official Journal of the European Communities 15. 12. 80 
vessels registered in a Member State of the 
Community, then to those of the recipient 
country, and only excepitonally and on 
special grounds could vessels of another 
nationality be used. 
Article 3 (3) 
— considers that in order to avoid any ambiguity or 
contradiction between Articles 3 (3) and 5, the 
provisions of Article 3 (3) should be preceded by 
the words 'without prejudice to Article 5' and that 
conversely, the corresponding introit of Article 5 
'without prejudice to Article 3 (3) and' should be 
deleted. 
Article 4 (I) 
— considers that the wording of this paragraph, by 
referring to the possibility of procuring products 
on the world market, no longer reflects the idea 
put forward in the proposal for a framework 
Regulation and repeated in the fifth recital in the 
new proposal for a Regulation, whereby in the 
event of an emergency or non-availability on the 
Community market, the products to be supplied 
should preferably be procured on the markets of 
developing countries who export these products 
and are geographically close to the countries in 
need of aid, 
— is of the opinion that the concepts of 'emergency' 
and 'availability on the Community market on 
normal terms' should be more closely defined in 
order to reduce uncertainty in their application, 
to ensure sound financial management and the 
relevant audit and financial controls. 
Article 4 (2) 
— is of the opinion that in order to avoid legislative 
ambiguity, this provision should be 
This opinion was adopted by the Court supplemented by adding the word 'appropriate' 
before 'management committee procedure'. 
Article 4 (3) 
— consideres that the general nature of the 
derogation from the provisions of Articles 50 to 
58 of the Financial Regulation governing 
contracts for the supply of goods and servicesQ) 
(for which no reason is given either in the recitals 
or the introduction), is not compatible with the 
principles of sound financial management, nor 
with the relevant audit and financial controls 
Article 5 
— recommends that the tenders to supply food aid 
be broken down by cost item in order to make 
possible a comparison of the component parts of 
the tenders and to thus facilitate financial 
controls, 
— considers that it is necessary to define the 
'exceptional cases' where a direct agreement 
procedure may be used, as is already the case for 
cereals and milk products supplied as food aid. 
Moreover, the Court 
— would refer to its opinion of 8 March 1979 in 
which it considered that in order for an analysis 
of the referred expenditure of the EAGGF 
Guarantee Section to be made from one year to 
the next, such refund expenditure should remain 
itemized within Chapter 92 of the general budget 
of the European Communities; 
— is of the opinion that the proposed Regulation 
should also provide for controls of the type, 
quality and packaging of the products referred to 
in Article 1. 
Auditors in its meeting of 2 October 1980. 
For the Court of Auditors of the 
European Communities 
The President 
Michael N. MURPHY 
(') Financial Regulation of 21 December 1977 applicable 
to the general budget of the European Communities 
(OJ No L 356, 31 12. 1977).