10 July 2012

Council Conclusion on Commission’s success in case of deficiencies identified in the Member States' management and control systems

The Council of the EU, 

• stresses the importance of the principle of shared management within Cohesion Policy, and emphasises the importance of effective management and control systems in order to ensure that EU funds are efficiently and correctly used; 
• welcomes Special Report No 3/2012 of the European Court of Auditors (hereinafter referred to as "the Court") on the Commission's successfully dealing with deficiencies identified in the Member States' management and control systems, and takes note of its recommendations as well as the reply from the EC;
• recalls the EC's aim to strengthen the focus on results and the effectiveness of cohesion spending by tying Cohesion Policy more systematically to the Europe 2020 objectives;
• notes the Court's positive assessment of the EC’s readiness to take the appropriate actions, including corrective actions, when deficiencies in management and control systems were identified, while also noting that this process was often lengthy; 
• notes that the Court's findings show that the EC was able to obtain varying degrees of assurance that identified deficiencies in Member States’ management and control systems were corrected, while also noting that the EC carried out follow-up audits when needed; 
• notes, however, that the Report focused on the actions taken by the EC to correct deficiencies identified mostly from 2005-06 onwards in the 2000-06 programmes, and considers that the EC has already taken steps to respond to the Court’s main recommendations; 
• encourages the EC and Member States to continue to improve management and control systems in the current programming period with a view to optimising the implementation in the next programming period, starting in 2014;
• encourages the Court to continue its thorough examination of programmes and projects financed under the cohesion policy, and to contribute with its recommendations to designing this policy to become even more efficient and result-orientated in the next programming period, starting in 2014.

Press release

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