Opinion No 7/2003 on a proposal for a Council regulation amending Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1150/2000 implementing Decision 2000/597/EC, Euratom on the system of the Communities' own resources
Date: 2003-10-16
Institutions: European Court of Auditors
Subjects: Member States' contribution, financial regulation, financing of the EU budget, own resources

30.12.2003

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Official Journal of the European Union

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I

(Information)

COURT OF AUDITORS

on a proposal for a Council regulation amending Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1150/2000
implementing Decision 2000/597/EC, Euratom on the system of the Communities’ own resources

OPINION No 7/2003

(pursuant to Article 248(4), second subparagraph, EC)

(2003/C 318/01)

THE COURT OF AUDITORS OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,

HAS ADOPTED THE FOLLOWING OPINION:

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Commu-
nity, and in particular Article 248(4), second subparagraph, and
Article 279(2) thereof,

INTRODUCTION

Having regard to Council Decision 2000/597/EC, Euratom of 29
September 2000 on the system of the European Communities’
own resources (1),

Having regard to Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1150/
2000 of 22 May 2000 implementing Decision 94/728/EC, Eura-
tom on the system of the Communities’ own resources (2),

1.
The Commission’s proposal, which takes on board some
content of earlier such proposals, includes the following main ele-
ments:

— adjustment to the B-account procedures to require Member
States to write off amounts of traditional own resources that
are not recovered by a specific deadline (five years) follow-
ing the date on which the demand for payment became
definitively enforceable, together with improved reporting
requirements,

— changes in accordance with the Council decision on own
resources of 29 September 2000, particularly the amount
(namely 25 % instead of 10 %) that Member States can retain
by way of collection costs for traditional own resources,

Having regard to the Commission proposal of 1 July 2003 (3),

— simpler definition of the method of interest calculation for

own resources made available late.

Having regard to the Council decision of 16 July 2003 to consult
the Court of Auditors on this proposal, received by the Court on
17 July 2003, in accordance with Article 279(2) of the Treaty,

GENERAL REMARKS

(1) OJ L 253, 7.10.2000, p. 42.
(2) OJ L 130, 31.5.2000, p. 1.
(3) Proposal for a Council Regulation amending Regulation (EC, Eura-
tom) No 1150/2000 implementing Decision 2000/597/EC, Euratom
on the system of the Communities’ own resources (COM(2003) 366
final — 2003/0131 (CNS)).

2.
In general the Court welcomes the amendments proposed
by the Commission, several of which respond to concerns
expressed by the Court in annual reports (4).

(4) See particularly the annual report concerning the financial year 2001,
paragraph 1.26, and the annual report concerning the financial year
1999, paragraph 1.16.

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The Court believes that use could be made of this oppor-
3.
tunity to improve the regulation in respect of the scope of inspec-
tion work related to gross national income (Article 19 of Regula-
tion (EC, Euratom) No 1150/2000), and of the information to be
provided by Member States about their control activities related
to the annual VAT base and gross national income.

SPECIFIC REMARKS

year time limit should be submitted to the reporting procedure set
out in the proposed new Article 17(3) and (4).

References throughout Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1150/
5.
2000 and this proposed amendment are to gross national prod-
uct (GNP). The Court notes that Article 2(7) of the Council deci-
sion on own resources of 29 September 2000 specifies that GNP
shall mean GNI (gross national income), and reiterates the view
expressed in its Opinion No 8/1999 (1) that it would be beneficial
to adjust all such references to gross national income (GNI).

4.
There are differences between the French and English ver-
sions of the Commission proposal, and the Court suggests that
modifications should be made so that both versions refer to Mem-
ber States’ central banks in Article 11(3), and to ensure that
entitlements that are deemed irrecoverable by applying the five-

6.
In the table shown below the Court sets out those pro-
posed amendments to the regulation on which it has an observa-
tion to make.

This opinion was adopted by the Court of Auditors in Luxembourg at the Court meeting of 15 and 16 October
2003.

For the Court of Auditors

Juan Manuel FABRA VALLÉS

President

(1) Opinion No 8/1999 on a Council proposal for a decision concerning
the European Union’s system of own resources (OJ C 310, 28.10.1999,
p. 1), paragraphs 9 and 10.

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Commission’s proposal (COM(2003) 366 final)
(References in bold type are to the number of the
Article concerned in Council Regulation (EC, Euratom)
No 1150/2000)

Court’s proposed modifications

Comment

ANNEX

(throughout)

Substitute GNI for GNP throughout

(unchanged in Commission proposal)

Add new paragraph 3:

3. Member States shall inform the Commission,
by means of annual reports, of the details and
results of their inspections or other checks made
that ensure the correctness of the financial and
economic aggregates on which the VAT and GNI
own resources are based. The reports shall be
sent to the Commission by 1 March of each year.

For the purposes of calculating the adjustment,
amounts shall be converted between the national
currency and the euro at the rate of exchange
provided for by Article 10(5).

Article 4

Article 1(4.2)

Article 6(4)(b) — additional sentence:

Together with the final quarterly statement for a
given year, Member States shall forward an esti-
mate of the total amount of entitlements contained
in the separate account at 31 December of that
year for which recovery has become unlikely.

Article 1(8)

New Article 10a(2), third subparagraph

… For the purposes of calculating the adjustment,
amounts shall be converted between the national
currency and the euro at the exchange rate on the
last day of quotation of the calendar year preced-
ing the budget year concerned.

Article 1(9)

New Article 11(3)

In the case of Member States which do not belong
to the economic and monetary union, the rate
shall be equal to the rate applied for three-month
public financing operations in the national cur-
rency on the money market of the Member State
concerned, on the final working day of the month
preceding the due date, increased by two percent-
age points. … (unchanged)

References throughout Regulation (EC, Euratom)
No 1150/2000 and this proposed amendment are
to gross national product (GNP). The Court notes
that Article 2(7) of the Council decision on own
resources of 29 September 2000 specifies that
GNP shall mean GNI (gross national income), and
considers that it would be beneficial to adjust all
these references (and the others in Regulation (EC,
Euratom) No 1150/2000) to gross national income
(GNI).

The Court believes that use could be made of this
opportunity to improve the regulation in respect
of the scope of inspection work related to gross
national income (Article 19 of Regulation (EC,
Euratom) No 1150/2000), and of the information
to be provided by Member States about their con-
trol activities related to the annual VAT base and
gross national income.

The Court welcomes this addition, which corre-
sponds in part to its recommendation in its annual
report concerning the year 1999, paragraph 1.16.

Article 10(5) states ‘… the balances … shall be
converted into euro at the rates of exchange apply-
ing on the first working day after 15 November
preceding the entries provided for in Article 10(4)’.
Since the new Article 10a(2) provides that the cal-
culation of the new Article 10a adjustment shall
be made at the same time as the determination of
GNI balances provided for by Article 10, it is most
logical to use the same exchange rate for both
operations.

The French and English texts of COM(2003) 366
do not match. The Court notes that it is the French
text that matches the intention expressed in the
explanatory memorandum.

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Commission’s proposal (COM(2003) 366 final)
(References in bold type are to the number of the
Article concerned in Council Regulation (EC, Euratom)
No 1150/2000)

Article 1(13)

Article 17(2) and new Article 17(3) and (4)

Court’s proposed modifications

Comment

(text unchanged by Commission proposal)

Article 19

Together with the Member State concerned, the
Commission shall each year inspect the aggregates
provided for errors in compilation, especially in
cases nofified by the GNP management commit-
tee. In doing so it may, in individual cases, also
examine calculations and basic statistics, apart
from information about individual companies or
persons, where no proper assessment would oth-
erwise be possible. The Commission shall respect
national legal provisions on the preservation of
the confidentiality of statistics.

Together with the Member State concerned, the
Commission shall each year inspect the aggre-
gates provided for errors in compilation, espe-
cially in cases noftified by the GNP management
committee. In doing so it may, in individual cases,
also examine calculations and basic statistics,
apart from information about individual com-
panies or persons, where no proper assessment
would otherwise be possible. The Commission
shall respect national legal provisions on the pre-
servation of the confidentiality of statistics.

(text unchanged by Commission proposal)

Article 21(1)(b)

(b)

the cases of force majeure referred to in
Article 17(2);

(b)

the cases of force majeure referred to in
Article 17(2);

The Court welcomes the changes proposed, which
correspond to recommendations expressed in its
annual reports, but observes that in the English
version of COM(2003) 366 final it is not com-
pletely clear that established entitlements that are
deemed irrecoverable by applying the five-year time
limit, are, equally with those earlier declared irre-
coverable by administrative decision, to be sub-
mitted to the reporting procedure set out in para-
graph 3 and the Commission’s decision on whether
the Member State is released from its obligation to
make the amounts available (paragraph 4).

The inspection should not be restricted to errors
in compilation. Moreover, there seems to be a dif-
ference of meaning between the French and English
versions.

This is part of a list of items to be considered by
the Advisory Committee on the Communities’ own
resources. The committee should consider all cases
falling under Article 17(2) and not only those of
force majeure.