European Court of Auditors : Upcoming audit report on Cohesion and Rural Development - final checks on 2007-13 spending

The European Court of Auditors (ECA) will publish its special report 'An assessment of the arrangements for closure of the 2007-2013 cohesion and rural development programmes' on Tuesday 31 January 2017 at 10h30 in 23 EU languages.

The report will assess the rules for final checks on 2007-13 cohesion and rural development spending programmes and identify risks to be addressed. It will make a number of recommendations, including for alignment of the rules, increased focus on results and improved reporting to the European Parliament and the Council.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

After the end of a programme period, programmes need to be financially settled, which means that any irregular expenditure in the EU share of projects co-financed by the Commission and the Member States has to be identified and returned to the EU budget. This process is known as 'closure'.

EU audits of the 2007-2013 period regularly showed that both cohesion and rural development programmes were prone to material levels of irregular spending. The auditors compared arrangements for the two policy areas and assessed how the Commission obtained assurance that the final declaration contained expenditure that was both legal and regular and used in accordance with its objectives. They also analysed the timeliness and reporting of the closure process.

Cohesion and rural development policies account for about 44 % of the European Union budget. For the 2007-2013 period, this amounted to some €430 billion.

The ECA's special reports set out the results of its performance and compliance audits of specific budgetary areas or management topics. The ECA selects and designs these audit tasks to be of maximum impact by considering the risks to performance or compliance, the level of income or spending involved, forthcoming developments and political and public interest.