EU: The European Court of Auditors has declined for the 12th year in succession to provide a clean bill of health for the EU's financial accounts, noting "weak internal controls" and "errors" in spending.
However, the Court of Auditors' report, which was published yesterday in Strasbourg, did note some progress made by the commission, which introduced a new accounting system recently.
The report said that the EU's spending budget of €104.8 billion presented a fair reflection of the Union's spending at December 31st 2005, but it qualified this opinion in the light of high levels of error uncovered in agriculture funding and structural funds.
The court concluded that agriculture spending amounting to €48.5 billion was still materially affected by errors, such as farmers claiming too much funding or not meeting their obligations. Similarly, EU structural funds were also affected by errors. This was primarily due to insufficient day-to-day checks by member-state authorities.
"Judging by the court's detailed audit work, errors with a financial impact are found too frequently for the court to conclude that all is well," said court president Hubert Webber, who added that it was the commission's responsibility to administer the budget in such a way as to prevent irregularities.
Audit commissioner Siim Kallas criticised aspects of the auditing procedure. In a speech prior to publication of the report he said that the court had ignored the fact that money misspent one year was often clawed back by the commission.