Debate: Discharge
Date: TUESDAY, 9 MAY 2023
Speaker: Jeroen Lenaers
Country: France
Language: EN

This House has a great responsibility to scrutinise that spending. I would really like to thank the co-rapporteur, the shadow rapporteurs, the Secretariat and all colleagues who took part in this work; we had an excellent cooperation. I would also like to express my gratitude to the work of the European Court of Auditors, which is an indispensable partner in the work that we do.  This discharge focuses on the year 2021, and we have observed a concerning increase in the error rate for expenditure, which now stands at 3 %, as reported by the Court of Auditors. This is well above the acceptable limit of 2 %. In fact, for the majority of reimbursement-based expenditures, the error rate reaches an alarming 4.7 % and we must take immediate action to prevent this rate from growing even further in the upcoming years. And we are urging the Commission to launch additional initiatives to address this.  The different methodologies used by the Commission and the Court of Auditors when calculating the risk at payment or the error rate also complicates the comparability,  it makes it difficult to compare the two numbers. This further adds confusion because the Commission, whenever the Court of Auditors presents an error rate which is positive, we use this in our communications, we accept it, whenever there is an error rate presented which is unfavourable to the Commission, the methodology is disputed. This is an approach which is not fair and we should also change that in order to make it all a bit more logical.  Even more alarming in that sense is the lack of responsibility and the failure to fully recognise shortcomings in the methodology with regards to climate spending. The Court calculated that spending on climate action has been overstated by EUR 72 billion for the 2014–2020 period, and the Commission refuses to fully acknowledge it – Commissioner Timmermans came to a CONT meeting and concluded by saying that we should agree to disagree on this. Sorry, but no, we cannot agree to disagree on overstating EUR 72 billion of climate spending. We need to accept the conclusions of the Court on this and work to address this issue.  Another concern that we are addressing involves the slow absorption of funds and the rate of commitment to implementation, which could lead to increased risk towards the end of the budgetary period and to resolve these issues, we need to continue to bolster the administrative capacity of the Member States and the European Commission.  Now, we have in this discharge, really emphasised the significance of the Union budget’s performance, which includes utilising appropriate indicators, simplifying rules and procedures and implementing better-targeted controls. Transparency is a key element of a resolution and we emphasise the importance of transparent operations across the board, including for NGO and intermediaries in terms of their funding and ownership. And we also request that the Commission establish an effective mechanism to ensure that NGO activities align with EU values.  We have also underscored the importance of incorporating new technologies like EDES and Arachne and developing a unified information and monitoring system provided by the Commission to allow for the electronic recording and storage of data of Union funding recipients, including their beneficial ownerships, in order to help us prevent any misuse of the budget.  We also recognise the benefits and lessons learned through the use of new technologies, such as satellite controls and agricultural spending, for instance. We are convinced that these advancements will play a crucial role in better safeguarding our budget.  Now, to wrap up on a very serious note, we remain deeply concerned – and this is also reflected in the resolution – about the rule of law situation in several Member States, which not only undermines democracy but also results in substantial risks for the Union budget. We expect all Member States to adhere to democracy and the rule of law in order to receive European funds. And we particularly highlight the concerning situation in Hungary, where corruption and an opaque public procurement system must be addressed through reforms within the context of the conditionality mechanism.  I am grateful for the level of unity we achieved during our work in the committee, and I look forward to listening to all the contributions of our colleagues.