| Author (Person) | Thomson, Ian | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Publisher | ProQuest Information and Learning | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Series Title | In Focus | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Series Details | 27.11.99 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Publication Date | 15/11/1999 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Content Type | News, Overview, Topic Guide | In Focus | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
The European Court of Auditors published its annual report concerning the financial year 1998 on the 16 November 1999. The European Court of Auditors (ECA) is the EU Institution charged with the responsibility for the external audit of the other EU Institutions. Each year it must provide the European Parliament and the Council with an annual report on the implementation of the Community Budget, together with a statement of assurance as to the reliability of the Community's financial accounts. It checks both the financial resources ('own resources') coming into the EU, as well as looking at expenditure. It investigates both expenditure managed directly by the European Commission as well as that managed by Member States, the latter comprising about 85% of the Community Budget. For further details of the work of the ECA see the brochure 'European Court of Auditors: Auditing the finances of the European union'. Further background information on the European Court of Auditors can be found in the Fact Sheets of the European Parliament and on budgetary control in the EU. For many years the ECA has been critical of aspects of the financial management of the EU budget. This has led to much media comment and defensive reaction from the European Commission. Eight days before the launch of the report in 1999, for example, the Commission issued a Press Release, IP/99/821 (8.11.99) reacting to leaks of the report appearing in certain newspapers. Similarly the Commission issued a Press Release, IP/99/847 (16.11.99) on the day the ECA issued the report itself. This year the strategy of the new European Commission is to accept much of the reports' criticisms and to see the need for changes in financial management as part of the overall plan for administrative reform being put together currently under the responsibility of European Commission Kinnock [See The European Commissioner in charge of the Budget, Michaele Schreyer, said:
The Commissioner emphasised four key points for future action:
The standard presentation and debate of the findings of the report by the President of the European Court of Auditors in the European Parliament on the day of its publication was postponed this year in a protest by the European Parliament that the report had been leaked. The Parliament will debate the report at its December 1999 plenary session [http://www1.europarl.eu.int/dg3/sdp/journ/en/n9911152.htm#6 andhttp://www.the-times.co.uk/news/pages/tim/99/11/17/timfgneur01010.html?999] By coincidence, the European Commission published in the same week, on 19 November 1999, the 1998 annual report of its Task-Force for Co-ordination of the Fight Against Fraud (UCLAF). The text of the report, and the associated Press Release, is available at: http://ec.europa.eu/comm/off/rep/olaf/1998/index.html. Earlier reports can be accessed at: http://ec.europa.eu/comm/off/rep/olaf/index.html. Background information on financial control, UCLAF and fraud can be found in SCADPLUS. The work of UCLAF has now been taken over by the independent European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF), established on 28 April 1999. Further background information can be found in European Sources Online on matters relating to the ECA.
Ian Thomson The European Court of Auditors published its annual report concerning the financial year 1998 on the 16 November 1999. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Subject Categories | Economic and Financial Affairs | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
