L 242/74
EN
Official Journal of the European Union
29.9.2023
77.
Notes that the Court concludes that the level of error in revenue was not material; notes that the revenue-related systems examined were generally effective but that the key internal TOR controls in certain Member States and the management of VAT reservations and TOR open points at the Commission were found to be only partially effective due to persistent weaknesses;
78.
Notes with concern that Customs duties are at risk of either not being declared or being declared incorrectly to the national customs authorities by importers; highlights that these evaded amounts, known as the ‘customs gap’, are not captured in Member States’ TOR accounting systems and do not fall within the scope of the Court’s audit opinion on revenue; notes with concern that the customs gap may affect the amounts of duties established by Member States; is worried that, according to the Court, for a third year in a row, the Union actions taken to reduce the gap and mitigate the risk that TOR are not complete; is worried that serious weaknesses have been persisting for several years in Member States’ accounting and management of TOR; notes with concern the insufficient progress on a number of actions of the Commission’s Customs Action Plan;
79.
Welcomes that the number of open longoutstanding TOR points decreased significantly between 2019 and 2021, and that the Commission updated its procedure for processing TOR inspection results, encourages the Commission to include a system for ranking Member States’ shortcomings in order of priority and to set deadlines for their follow-up actions based on Member States’ replies;
80.
Notes that for the sixth year in a row, DG BUDG has maintained the reservation that the TOR amounts transferred to the Union budget are inaccurate owing to undervaluation of textiles and shoes imported from China during the period from 2011 to 2017; notes that on 8 March 2022, the Court of Justice of the European Union published its final decision on the Commission’s infringement case against the UK concluding that the UK failed to fulfil its obligations under Union law in respect of own resources; Recommendations
81.
Supports the recommendations of the Court in its Annual Report as well as in related special reports; calls on the Commission to implement them without delay and to keep the discharge authority informed on the progress of the implementation;
82.
Furthermore, calls on the Commission to: (a) improve the assessment of financial risks for TOR by implementing the relevant measures of its Customs Action Plan in a timely manner; (b) ensure the protection of the Union budget by making general and systematic use of digital and automated systems for reporting, monitoring and audit and urgently establish an integrated and interoperable system building on, but not limited to, existing tools and databases; Single Market, Innovation and Digital
83.
Notes that the MFF heading 1 ‘Single Market, Innovation and Digital’ accounts for 10,2 % or EUR 18,5 billion of the Union budget: of this amount, EUR 10,8 billion (58,7 %) is spent on research, EUR 2,6 billion (13,9 %) on Space, EUR 2,2 billion (11,8 %) on Transport, Energy and Digital, EUR 1,5 billion on InvestEU, and EUR 1,4 billion (7,4 %) on other areas;
84.
Notes that the Court has examined a statistical representative sample of 130 transactions covering the full range of spending under this MFF heading, the regularity information in the annual activity reports of the Directorate General for Economic and Financial Affairs (DG ECFIN), DG RTD and REA, which is included in the Commission’s AMPR, and selected IT systems of the Commission;