Debate: Discharge
Date: WEDNESDAY, 4 MAY 2022
Speaker: Johannes Hahn
Language: EN

In 2020, the Union budget played a decisive role in the Union response to the pandemic. Our funds were used to provide medical equipment, support research for treatments and vaccines, but also to save jobs and businesses. At the same time, we continued to deliver on our horizontal priorities and, first and foremost, on the green and digital transitions. 2020 was also the year of the adoption of the largest stimulus package ever financed in Europe, Next Generation EU, and thanks to the strong support of this House and also, of course, the Member States. In this context, allow me now to explain the Commission’s action on the key political priorities outlined in the discharge report. Firstly, on safeguarding the Union budget, in particular in view of Next Generation EU. The Commission has a strong control system in place for protecting the Union budget. It’s based notably on robust governance arrangements and multiannual control cycles. Our control strategies are tailored and risk assessments are targeted. Risks are monitored continuously and mitigating measures are taken. Our control system ensured the protection of the Union budget also in the challenging environment brought about by the pandemic. Further on, we have designed, together with the Member States, a robust control system for the disbursements under Next Generation EU, and in particular the Recovery and Resilience Facility. We have also strengthened the bodies in charge of safeguarding the budget, amongst others, starting with the European Public Prosecutor’s Office and the European Anti—Fraud Office. Secondly, on rule of law conditionality. With the Conditionality Regulation, the Union has added one layer to the protection of taxpayers’ money. Based on the Conditionality Regulation, the Commission has been screening since the beginning of 2021 for possible breaches of the rule of law that could affect the Union budget. In this context, the Commission requested in November last year information to Poland and Hungary on issues relevant to the application of this Regulation. In April 2022, recently, the Commission sent a written notification to Hungary. Let me recall that the Conditionality Regulation is an instrument designed to protect the Union budget against breaches of the principles of the rule of law. At the same time, it protects beneficiaries and final recipients of Union funds in case measures are imposed on a Member State. Other instruments are designed to uphold and protect the values on which the Union is founded, without having regard to the protection of the financial interests of the Union. Thirdly, on digital tools for reporting, monitoring and audit. The Commission has over time developed and made available to Member States an IT tool – it was already mentioned by some speakers – Arachne, to identify projects and beneficiaries that might be susceptible to risks of irregularities, fraud and conflicts of interest. Although the use of this tool is currently voluntary, it’s already largely used in the field of cohesion and is being introduced for agricultural spending. We are also pleased to note that most Member States are planning to use it under the Recovery and Resilience Facility. We continue to encourage Member States who are not yet using the tool to do this in the future, and we will continue to provide training and to offer support and technical assistance. Moreover, with the targeted amendment of the Financial Regulation, we will propose to further enhancing the protection of the Union budget and to digitalise our controls and audits and improve the quality and interoperability of data on recipients of EU funding. We will propose to make the use of the integrated IT systems for data mining and risks, making Arachne compulsory. And I know this gets the support of this House and I hope we can finally find a positive agreement because I think we have been working on this already for a couple of years. Fourthly, on the performance of the budget. The Commission attaches high importance to maximise the effectiveness of EU spending. Much progress has been made in this respect for the current MFF. Not only have we put in place better indicators to measure performance, but we have also better ways to inform European citizens about our results, thanks to dedicated websites. Furthermore, the disbursements under the Recovery and Resilience Facility are made based on performance once the relevant Member State satisfactorily fulfils the related milestones and targets. More is under development, for example methodologies to better evaluate the contribution of the various EU spending programmes to enhancing both gender equality and biodiversity. As regards gender equality, first results will be published already this year, well ahead of the timeline foreseen in the interinstitutional agreement. On biodiversity, we will monitor compliance with our spending commitments in this area for the 2024, 2026 and 2027 budgets. We also have begun working on a pilot basis on methodologies to gauge the overall impact of our spending on climate and digital transition. Finally, a few words on simplification. The Commission will continue its efforts on simplifying financial rules for Union funds recipients, for example, through the use of electronic invoicing and by aligning financial rules with the procurement directives as this remains the best way to prevent errors. This will, of course, only happen with the support of this House and of the Member States. Dear colleagues, as you can see, the European Commission is committed to ensure that the Union budget is spent in line with the rules and that it delivers maximum value for citizens. We are also committed to following up on the recommendations outlined in the discharge report. Let me close with the wish to continue the good collaboration we have built over the years between this House, the Member States, Court of Auditors and the Commission. It’s only through strong collaboration that we will achieve our shared goals. There is really always work in progress, but together we can indeed achieve our goals we have de facto decided together. So thank you for your attention and your continuing support.