Pressure mounts on EU audit method

The European Court of Auditors is set to come under pressure to change procedures this week after yet another failure to sign off the EU’s accounts.

The ECA’s report on the 2004 budget is expceted to be the 11th time that the watchdog has been unable to give a positive ‘statement of assurance’ on the way that EU funds are spent.

The report will be presented to the European Parliament’s budgetary control committee on Monday and to the plenary session in Strasbourg on Tuesday.

Although the European Commission is responsible for ensuring that the EU budget is spent correctly, it has direct control over just 20 per cent of the funds.

Member states are responsible for the remaining 80 per cent, and it is the lack of transparency in national accounts that stops the ECA from endorsing the budget each year.

The commission suggested in June that member states take greater responsibility for ensuring that EU money is spent correctly.

But this proposal was rejected by the ECOFIN council of finance ministers last week amid fears that national governments could be called to account by MEPs.

Instead, the ministers asked the ECA to offer more direction on which areas could be improved – something which it has shown a reluctance to do in the past.

They called for the court to identify the weak spots in the system, in particular the countries and the spending areas most open to fraud and waste.

MEPs are expected to support the demand for more action from the court, but will also seek greater assurances from national governments that they too are clamping down on waste.

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