Report from the Commission to the European Parliament on the follow-up to 2007 Discharge Decisions (Summary) - European Parliament Resolutions drafted pursuant to Article 276(3) of the EC Treaty and Article 180b of the Euratom Treaty, Article 147 of the Financial Regulation and Article 119(5) of the EDF Financial Regulation {SEC(2009)1427}
Date: 2009-10-16
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: budgetary discharge, financial year, general budget (EU), implementation of the budget

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COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES 

Brussels, 16.10.2009 
COM(2009)526 final 

REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT 

on the follow-up to 2007 Discharge Decisions (Summary) - European Parliament Resolutions 
drafted pursuant to Article 276(3) of the EC Treaty and Article 180b of the Euratom Treaty, 
Article 147 of the Financial Regulation and Article 119(5) of the EDF Financial Regulation  

{SEC(2009)1427} 

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TABLE OF CONTENTS 

REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT on the follow-up to 
2007 Discharge Decisions (Summary) - European Parliament Resolutions drafted pursuant to 
Article 276(3) of the EC Treaty and Article 180b of the Euratom Treaty, Article 147 of the 
Financial Regulation and Article 119(5) of the EDF Financial Regulation {SEC(2009)}.........1 

PREAMBLE ...............................................................................................................................3 

I - COMMISSION RESPONSES TO THE REQUESTS MADE BY THE EUROPEAN 

PARLIAMENT IN THE GENERAL BUDGET DISCHARGE RESOLUTION........4 

a) Horizontal issues.....................................................................................................................4 

b) Sectoral issues.........................................................................................................................7 

c) Special Reports issued by the Court of Auditors ..................................................................10 

II – European Development Funds ...........................................................................................10 

III – Requests in the resolutions concerning the agencies ........................................................10 

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PREAMBLE 

This is the Commission's report to the European Parliament (EP) on the follow-up to the discharge 
for  the  2007  financial  year1,  pursuant  to  Article  276(3)  of  the  EC  Treaty  and  Article  180b  of  the 
Euratom Treaty, Article 147 of the Financial Regulation and Article 119(5) of the EDF Financial 
Regulation. Due to translation and time constraints, this report is being published in all EU official 
languages in this summarised form. The full Commission replies to each specific Parliament request 
are available in a Commission staff working document2 which is published in English, French and 
German. Both these follow-up reports relate to the Resolutions adopted by the European Parliament 
on 23 April 2009. 

Each  chapter3  of  this  summary  report  includes  cross-references  to  the  relevant  points  in  the  full 
Commission staff working document mentioned above. These references will help readers to find 
all requests (and the action planned or already taken by the Commission) relating to a given chapter 
or which are of particular interest to them in the staff working document.  

In the discharge decisions for the general budget, the EDF and the agencies, the Commission has 
identified  a  total  of  203  requests  made  to  it  by  the  European  Parliament.  For  99  of  these  the 
Commission agrees to take the action requested by Parliament. The Commission considers that for 
96  requests  the  required  action  has  already  been  taken  or  is  ongoing,  though  in  some  cases  the 
results  of  the  actions  will  need  to  be  assessed.  Finally,  for  reasons  related  to  the  existing  legal 
framework or its institutional prerogatives, the Commission cannot accept 8 requests4. 

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2007 General Budget Discharge, 2007 EDF Discharge, 2007 Agencies Discharge. 
Commission  Staff  Working  Document,  accompanying  the  Report  from  the  Commission  to  the  European 
Parliament on the follow-up to the 2007 Discharge Decisions. 
Both  the  present  summarised  report  and  the  full  staff  working  document  follow  as  closely  as  possible  the 
structure of the resolutions containing the requests of the European Parliament. 
See requests 7, 73, 93, 126, 134, 135, 167 and 182. 

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I - COMMISSION RESPONSES TO THE REQUESTS MADE BY THE EUROPEAN 
PARLIAMENT IN THE GENERAL BUDGET DISCHARGE RESOLUTION 

This is a summary of the Commission's replies to the specific requests made by the European 
Parliament in its 2007 Discharge Resolutions. A first reaction on each item of the resolution 
was transmitted by Vice-President Kallas to the rapporteur  and Chairman  of the Committee 
on Budgetary Control committee on 15 May 2009. 

A) HORIZONTAL ISSUES

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Statement of assurance (Commission staff working document, points 3-11) 

Like the European Parliament, the Commission welcomes the Court of Auditors' unqualified 
opinion on the 2007 accounts. It will continue to improve the quality of  its accounting data 
and accounts as recommended by the Court.  

The  Commission  agrees  that  high  error  rates  in  underlying  transactions  are  partly  due  to 
complex  rules.  It  acknowledges  that  simplification  has  a  role  to  play  in  improving  the 
implementation of EU policies and reducing error rates, but points out that a certain degree of 
complexity in rules and eligibility criteria is unavoidable as these are often fixed in order to 
achieve  desired  policy  objectives,  and  are  the  outcome  of  a  complex  legislative  procedure. 
Improvements have been incorporated into the 2007-2013 legal bases. Further simplification 
measures for Structural Funds, such as the possibility to declare costs on the basis of flat rates, 
unit costs and lump sums, were decided in May 2009 in the light of the financial crisis. The 
impact  of  simplification  is  expected  to  become  visible  in  the  medium-  to  long-term. 
Moreover,  the  Commission  is  currently  working  to  identify  possible  areas  of  further 
simplification in particular in the context of its preparatory work for the triennial revision of 
the Financial Regulation. It could focus in particular on grants, in particular eligibility rules; 
management  methods,  whose  provisions  have  become  increasingly  complex  and  which  are 
crucial  to  improve  the  efficiency  and  delivery  of  external  aid  in  particular;  and  control 
measures. The degree of complexity of the eligibility rules has a direct link with the intensity 
and  cost  of  controls  required  to  gain  reasonable  assurance  on  the  legality  and  regularity  of 
transactions.  If  simplified  eligibility  rules  are  decided  and  effectively  implemented  (e.g. 
increased use of lumps-sums and flat rates, acceptance of the use of national eligibility rules 
in case of co-financing by Member States) the underlying transactions will be less prone to 
error, which will allow to perform less extensive controls (controls can be focussed on output 
rather than input) and ultimately reduce the cost of controls. The Commission is also working 
on the concept of tolerable risk of error, which seeks to identify the intensity of the controls 
which is most cost-effective, i.e. to provide an appropriate balance between costs and benefits 
(reduction  in  error  rates).  It  will  also  study  principles  for  further  simplifying  sectoral 
legislation for the next round of basic acts, those to come into force from 2014. 

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The issues raised by the European Parliament under its main conclusions are addressed below under the 
relevant points. 

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Budgetary  management  –  financial  corrections,  amounts  recovered  and  suspension  of 
payments (Commission staff working document, points 12-13) 

Changes were made to the ABAC financial system in 2008 to permit recoveries to be traced 
back to the specific errors or irregularities. This has allowed the Commission to present more 
complete and reliable recovery figures in the 2008 accounts. The Commission is also working 
to  improve  further  the  reliability  and  completeness  of  the  data  the  Member  States  report  on 
their financial corrections. 

Furthermore,  the  Commission  proceeds  with  financial  corrections  where  necessary.  In  the 
framework  of  the  Action  plan  of  19  February  2008  to  strengthen  the  Commission's 
supervisory role in relation to shared management of structural actions, the Commission has 
taken  steps  to  ensure  that  irregularities  found  in  the  implementation  of  the  Structural  Funds 
are dealt with as soon as they are detected and financial corrections are made promptly. 

Annual  summaries  of  audits  and  declarations  available  in  the  shared-management  field, 
and national management declarations (Commission staff working document, points 14-18)  

An evaluation of the annual summaries and their contribution to the assurance regarding the 
operation  of  Member  States'  control  system  is  given  in  the  Annual  Activity  Reports  of  the 
Directorates  General  concerned.  Annual  summaries  can  add  value,  particularly  where  they 
contain  an  analysis  of  problems  or  a  statement  of  assurance,  identify  good  practices  and 
propose solutions. The Commission is continuing to work with Member States to improve the 
annual summaries. Compared to 2007, for 2008 all Member States respected the obligation set 
in Article 53b(3) of the Financial Regulation to provide an annual summary and complied or 
mostly complied with the minimum requirements. For 2008 the Commission issued new and 
better  guidelines  for  the  annual  summaries  under  structural  funds.  It  also  welcomes  the 
initiative by seven Member States to append an assurance statement to their annual summaries 
for 2008 as is suggested in the revised guidelines.  

Together with the four national management declarations received for 2008, this brings to 11 
the  number  of  Member  States  providing  some  sort  of  national  assurance.  The  Commission 
will  also  continue  to  support  those  Member  States  which  provide  voluntary  national 
declarations on EU funds. To this end it is analysing those declarations and statements which 
have been provided, with the aim of defining the key aspects of format and scope which add 
value.  

Control systems (Commission staff working document, points 19-33) 

In recent years, the Commission has put significant efforts into improving its control systems, 
following recommendations made by the Court of Auditors and requests from the Discharge 
Authority.  To  address  deficiencies  brought  up  by  its  own  audit  work  or  by  the  external 
auditor,  the  Commission  launched  the  action  plan  towards  an  integrated  internal  control 
framework (in 2006) and the action plan to strengthen the Commission's supervisory role for 
structural actions (in 2008). An impact report on the action plan towards an integrated internal 
control framework was adopted by the Commission in early 2009 (COM(2009) 43), reporting 
completion  of  the  actions.  A  report  on  the  action  plan  to  strengthen  the  Commission's 
supervisory role for structural actions was also adopted at the same time (COM(209) 42). The 
Commission is, on a continuous basis, further improving its own control systems and those of 
its partners wherever it identifies weaknesses. 

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The Synthesis Report, which is drafted on the basis of the assurance given and reservations 
made in the Annual Activity Reports, assesses the Commission's management achievements 
in  a  given  year.  It  instructs  Commission  services  to  take  action  to  address  the  causes  of 
reservations in their Annual Activity Reports and to monitor progress regularly. 

The  Commission  believes  that  a  tolerable  risk  approach  can  give  a  clear  view  of  the 
appropriate  balance  between  error  rates  and  the  cost  of  controls,  thus  promoting  sound  and 
efficient  stewardship  of  EU  funds.  It  presented  a  communication  on  this  issue  in  December 
2008  (COM(2008)  866),  using  structural  funds  and  rural  development  as  illustrative 
examples.  The  Commission  will  make  concrete  proposals  for  tolerable  risk  in  the  areas  of 
research, energy and transport and rural development in the first half of 2010 and on external 
aid, development and enlargement and administrative expenditure in the latter half of 2010. 

Transparency (Commission staff working document, points 34-40) 

The  Commission  has  set  up  the  Financial  Transparency  System  which  provides  complete, 
searchable  and  comparable  data  on  beneficiaries  of  centrally  managed  funds.  For  shared 
management,  a  portal  on  the  Europa  site  provides  links  to  national  websites  set  up  by  the 
Member States where information is provided, in accordance with the implementing rules and 
guidelines adopted. 

Moreover, a high-level EP-Commission group agreed on 22 April to create a common register 
for interest representatives. 

The Commission considers that the existing code of conduct for Members of the Commission 
already  contains  comprehensive  and  appropriate  rules  on  responsibility  and  ethics. 
Nevertheless,  reflexions  about  possible  further  improvements  of  the  existing  framework  are 
ongoing. 

Financial Regulation (Commission staff working document, point 41) 

The Commission will present its proposal for the future Financial Regulation by May 2010, in 
accordance with the applicable provisions. As in the past, the future Financial Regulation will 
be  discussed  and  negotiated  in  close  cooperation  with  the  Parliament  and  Council.  In 
particular, if the Lisbon Treaty has entered into force, the future Financial Regulation will be 
co-decided by the European Parliament and the Council. 

Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) (Commission staff working document, points 42-46) 

In compliance with the regulations in place OLAF has immediate access to any information 
held by the Commission required to conduct an investigation, including information contained 
in databases.  

The  second  protocol  to  the  Convention  on  the  protection  of  financial  interests  entered  into 
force on 19 May 2009. It has been ratified by most Member States and provides specifically 
for  direct  cooperation  between  the  European  Commission  and  the  judicial  authorities  of  the 
Member States in the protection of the Community's financial interests. 

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As  regards  third  countries'  beneficiaries,  all  future  contracts  will  continue  to  stipulate  that 
their national authorities must cooperate fully with OLAF.  

The  Commission  is  reviewing  its  disciplinary  practice  with  a  view  to  speeding  up  the 
procedure, e.g. by closer collaboration between OLAF and the Investigation and Disciplinary 
Office of the Commission (IDOC).  

B) SECTORAL ISSUES 

Own resources (Commission staff working document, point 47) 

The  Commission  has  taken  the  action  requested  concerning  the  use  of  GNI  data  including 
FISIM for calculating Community own resources. The Commission's "proposal for a Council 
Decision  on  the  allocation  of  financial  intermediation  services  indirectly  measured  (FISIM) 
for  the  establishment  of  the  Gross  National  Income  (GNI)  used  for  the  purposes  of  the 
European Communities' budget and its own resources" (COM(2009) 238 final, adopted on 26 
May  2009)  provides  for  the  retroactive  allocation  of  FISIM  to  GNI  for  own  resources 
purposes from 1 January 2005.  

Agriculture and Natural Resources (Commission staff working document, points 48-53) 

The  CAP  Health  Check  agreement  brings  further  simplification  to  the  Single  Payment 
Scheme (e.g. reducing the types of entitlements, possibility to merge entitlements) and more 
decoupling  of  payments  (e.g.  arable  crops,  seeds,  hops,  animal  premia).  In  terms  of 
administration  further  decoupling  means  better  controllability  and  no  need  to  verify  the 
respect of specific sectoral criteria but only of the general SPS rules (i.e. no need to verify that 
the crop has indeed been produced). 

The Commission will continue to monitor closely the IACS procedure in Greece. Greece has 
complied with its action plan and created a new, operational LPIS. The new system will be 
used by the Greek authorities for the first time during the 2009 claims procedure.  

As  regards  rural  development  expenditure,  where  most  errors  occur,  the  management  and 
control  system  for  the  expenditure  under  the  newly  created  European  Agricultural  Fund  for 
Rural Development (EAFRD) has been aligned with the EAGF guarantee system as of 2007 
in accordance with Council Regulation 1290/2005. Thus, in the future, the widely recognised 
advantages of the EAGF system will also apply to rural development expenditure. Moreover, 
Member  States  are  obliged  to  ensure  that  all  rural  development  measures  are  verifiable  and 
controllable,  as  well  as  to  ensure  the  respect  of  eligibility  rules.  The  Commission  has  also 
given extra guidance to Member States on how to implement agri-environmental measures. 

Fisheries subsidies (Commission staff working document, points 54-57) 

The  2002  reform  of  the  Common  Fisheries  Policy  (CFP)  already  made  important  progress 
towards  sustainability,  in  particular  by  moving  towards  better  integration  of  environmental 
concerns  into  fisheries  management  and  by  removing  some  of  the  financial  support  that 
contributed directly to overcapacity. The Green Paper on the reform of the CFP of April 2009 
launched  a  public  consultation  which  is  ongoing  and  which  deals  in  particular  with  the 
question of public financial support to fisheries that is in contravention of CFP objectives. 

Cohesion (Commission staff working document, points 58-70) 

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The Commission has incorporated in its audit strategy for 2009-2011 all on-going actions of 
its action plan to strengthen the Commission's supervisory role for structural actions (such as 
completion  of  national  remedial  action  plans,  suspension  and  correction  procedures).  In  the 
report on implementation (COM(2009) 42), the Commission showed that the action plan has 
produced  effective  results  and  has  committed  itself  to  report  in  early  2010  on  the  initial 
impact of the action plan. 

The  Commission's  audit  work  is  based  on  a  comprehensive  risk  assessment,  which  is 
regularly updated. This takes into account several factors, including previous audit results and 
the level of financial corrections, and leads to more rigorous audit work in more risky areas 
and programmes. However, this information should be interpreted with care, and in particular 
the level of financial corrections for a Member State is not as such indicative of the level of 
risk involved. 

The Commission has continued to work on simplifying the 2007-13 rules, in particular on the 
system for reporting irregularities and the possibility to declare costs on the basis of flat rates, 
unit costs or lump sums.  

Internal  policies,  including  research  (Commission  staff  working  document,  point  1  and 
points 71-91) 

In research, the Commission has devised a multiannual control strategy for the 6th Framework 
Programme (FP6). It is based on the detection and correction of any errors which could not be 
identified  by  desk  checks  before  a  payment  was  made.  This  is  achieved  by  a  significant 
increase  in  the  number  of  ex-post  audits  and  the  recovery  of  overpaid  amounts.  This  has 
already contributed to a reduction in error rates in recent years.  

The 7th Framework Programme (FP7) has brought about further improvements and a number 
of  important  simplifications.  The  introduction  of  the  participants  guarantee  fund  has  been 
instrumental in considerably reducing the number of ex-ante financial checks and the use of 
protective measures. It replaces the collective financial responsibility of the contractors as laid 
down in FP6. The Rules for Participation for FP7 (Art. 31) provide that average costs can be 
charged as long as they do not deviate significantly from actual costs.  

Furthermore,  the  single  registration  facility  for  participants  avoids  repeated  requests  to 
beneficiaries  and  improves  data  quality  and  coherence  in  all  grant  management  systems. 
Further  improvements  will  be  achieved  by  the  gradual  introduction  of  fully  electronic 
exchange systems for the whole chain of proposal and grant management in the frame of the 
e-FP7 initiative. 

The  Commission's  detailed  replies  to  the  European  Parliament's  requests  in  specific  policy 
areas under internal policies are set out in the attached staff working document. 

External  actions,  NGOs  and  Development  (Commission  staff  working  document,  point  2 
and points 92-111) 

The  Commission  has  introduced  measures  to  reinforce  the  controls  at  the  level  of 
implementing organisations, in particular the new standard Terms of Reference for audits and 
the  development  of  CRIS-Audit  for  their  follow-up.  Given  their  recent  introduction  the 
Commission  expects  the  full  benefits  of  such  measures  to  become  clearer  in  the  future. 
Meanwhile the Commission continues its efforts to further improve its systems, in line with 

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the  Court's  recommendations.  It  plans  to  put  in  place  measures  such  as  the  development  of 
specific  guidance  to  help  implementing  organisations  manage  EC  funds  better  and  comply 
with EC rules, thus reinforcing preventive measures. 

Recent evaluations of the Commission's cooperation with partner countries through the UN, 
and  of  aid  delivery  through  the  EIB  and  the  development  banks,  conclude  that  this  gives 
added  value  and  tangible  results,  in  particular  for  the  larger  trust  funds.  In  addition, 
participation  in  such  initiatives  enabled  the  Commission  to  intervene  in  politically  sensitive 
areas,  where  it  would  otherwise  have  been  impossible  to  deliver  aid.  The  Commission  was 
able  to  benefit  from  the  field  presence  and  expertise  of  its  multilateral  partners  in  terms  of 
implementation. The Commission will continue to work closely with the UN to improve the 
performance  of  verification  missions  and  to  enhance  the  transparency  and  visibility  of 
Community  contributions  to  the  UN.  In  this  regard,  the  6th  Annual  FAFA  Working  Group 
meeting,  which  took  place  in  April  2009,  has  agreed  on  terms  of  reference  (TOR)  for 
verification missions. These have already been used successfully on a trial basis for the past 
year.  

Since 2008, the Commission has published the names of all beneficiaries of external actions 
funding,  in  compliance  with  Article  30.3  of  the  Financial  Regulation.  This  list  is 
comprehensive,  and  therefore  not  limited  to  "NGOs",  a  generic  term  for  which  there  is  no 
commonly  agreed  legal  definition.  For  contractual  aspects  of  funding,  the  Commission 
identifies the eligibility of Non-State Actors (NSA) for EC funding on the basis of their own 
national legal framework. 

The  Commission's  replies  to  other  requests  concerning  external  relations,  humanitarian  aid, 
development policy and external relations are set out in the attached staff working document 
under the points concerning external actions and under the European Development Funds. 

Pre-accession strategy (Commission staff working document, points 112-120) 

Upon their accession on 1 January 2007, a Co-operation and Verification Mechanism was set 
up  for  Bulgaria  and  Romania,  to  help  remedy  certain  shortcomings  in  the  areas  of  judicial 
reform,  the  fight  against  corruption  and,  for  Bulgaria,  organised  crime  and  to  monitor 
progress in these areas through periodical reports. The latest reports were adopted on 22 July 
2009 and transmitted to the European Parliament (COM(2009) 401 final and COM(2009) 402 
final).  

As  regards  candidate  and  potential  candidate  countries,  the  fight  against  corruption  and 
organised  crime  is  a  key  priority  of  all  the  Accession  and/or  European  Partnerships.  The 
Commission  has  also  made  it  an  integral  part  of  its  strategy  for  the  implementation  of  the 
instrument  for  pre-accession  assistance  (IPA).  All  Multi-annual  Indicative  Planning 
Documents  for  IPA  (MIPDs)  now  include  the  fight  against  corruption  as  a  priority.  More 
practical initiatives are to be proposed and prepared in co-operation with OLAF. 

Administrative expenditure (Commission staff working document, points 121-126)  

The Commission's detailed replies to the European Parliament's requests concerning European 
Schools,  staff  issues  and  Community  buildings  are  set  out  in  the  attached  staff  working 
document. Information on building programming has been made available in the Preliminary 

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Draft  Budgets  2008,  2009  and  2010,  and  at  the  discussions  of  the  transfers  for  20096, 
including on office space needs for the years to come. 

Follow-up  measures  in  the  light  of  the  discharge  (Commission  staff  working  document, 
point 127)  

The Commission follows-up all discharge requests except where they are not in line with the 
existing legal framework or its institutional prerogatives. Pursuant to Article 276(3) of the EC 
Treaty  and  Article  147  of  the  Financial  Regulation  it  reports  each  year  to  the  European 
Parliament on the measures taken in the light of the Parliament's observations and comments 
in its discharge decisions. 

C) SPECIAL REPORTS ISSUED BY THE COURT OF AUDITORS 

In  its  discharge  resolution,  the  European  Parliament  included  requests  to  the  Commission 
concerning a number of special reports published by the Court of Auditors in 2007 and 2008. 
The  Commission's  replies  to  these  requests  are  set  out  in  the  Commission  staff  working 
document (points 128-169). 

II – EUROPEAN DEVELOPMENT FUNDS 

As  regards  budget  support  programmes,  vigorous  efforts  are  being  made  to  improve  the 
analysis  of  eligibility  and  enhance  the  clarity  of  Financing  Agreements  and  payment 
decisions.  The  information  relating  to  all budget  support  programmes  approved  in  2008  are 
presented in summarised form in the Annual Action Programmes of 20087.  

In order to meet the demand for even greater transparency in the treatment of budget support, 
the  Commission  will  provide  more  in-depth  coverage  of  budget  support  issues  in  future 
annual reports on the "European Community's Development and External Assistance Policies 
and their Implementation".  

Ex-ante controls constitute a major part of EuropeAid's current control strategy, so that any 
errors  detected  during  such  controls  can  be  corrected  before  final  payments  are  approved. 
They include, wherever necessary and appropriate, audits or specific technical certification by 
independent experts, depending on the type of contract/operator, resulting in a high intensity 
of checks at the level of the implementing organisations, notably before final payment. 

More  detailed  information  on  all  requests  related  to  the  EDF  is  set  out  in  the  Commission 
staff working document (points 170-183). 

III – REQUESTS IN THE RESOLUTIONS CONCERNING THE AGENCIES  

As set out in the Common Statement of 10 March 2009, the inter-institutional Working Group 
on Regulatory Agencies will address a number of key issues put forward by the participating 
Institutions,  including  the  role  and  position  of  the  Agencies  in  the  EU's  institutional 
landscape,  the  creation,  structure  and  operation  of  these  agencies,  together  with  funding, 

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Transfers DEC5 and DEC24. 
See http://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/work/ap/aap/2008_en.htm  

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budgetary, supervision and management issues. At technical level, a list of specific issues has 
been  identified  and  agreed  upon.  Work  is  currently  ongoing  within  the  Group  and  the 
Commission  will  undertake  the  necessary  action  depending  on  the  outcome  of  these 
discussions. 

The  Commission's  replies  to  European  Parliament's  requests  on  various  general  matters 
concerning  the  regulatory  agencies  and  to  requests  addressed  to  it  concerning  individual 
agencies are set out in the Commission staff working document (points 184-203). 

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