Communicatio: Protection of the EU budget to end 2014

President Juncker has strongly stressed the need to ensure the sound financial management of European Union programmes and insisted that all necessary measures be put in place to protect the EU budget. This Communication describes the functioning of the preventive and corrective mechanisms foreseen in the legislation and the actions taken by the Commission services to protect the EU budget from illegal or irregular expenditure. It also provides a best estimate of the figures resulting from their use and indicates how Member States are involved and impacted.

This Communication is prepared annually following a specific request by the European Parliament in the context of the 2011 discharge procedure and is therefore addressed to this institution, as well as to the Council and to the European Court of Auditors (ECA). It complements the information included in the 2014 EU annual accounts, the 2014 Commission’s Synthesis Report, and the relevant parts of the Annual Activity Reports of the Directorates General concerned.