Financial instruments in cohesion policy at closure of the 2007–2013 period: verification work yielded good results overall, but some errors remained

Summary:

Financial instruments were an important method of cohesion policy financing in the 2007-2013 programming period. Our previous audits concerning these instruments revealed a number of errors and weaknesses during implementation. The Commission stated that these shortcomings would be addressed at closure.

We found that the Commission and Member States had largely taken the necessary steps to verify the eligibility of this expenditure at closure. Although we identified some errors with financial impact, overall their work had yielded good results. While most of the shortcomings we identified have been addressed for the 2014-2020 programming period, we recommend that the Commission provide advice on the most frequent errors uncovered in audits. We further recommend that the Commission complete the guidance to audit authorities for providing assurance on the eligibility of financial instrument expenditure at closure.

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