Report from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council. Eighth report from the Commission on the operation of the inspection arrangements for traditional own resources (2013–2015) (Article 18(5) of Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1150/2000 of 22 May 2000

The Commission regularly compiles a report for the European Parliament and the Council on the operation of the inspection arrangements for traditional own resources (TOR). The inspections of TOR are based on Council Decision 2007/436/EC, Euratom of 7 June 2007, Council Regulation No 1150/2000 of 22 May 2000 and Council Regulation No 1026/1999 of 10 May 1999.

The responsibility for collecting TOR is delegated to the Member States. They must make the duties collected available to the EU budget and are allowed to retain, by way of collection costs, 25% of all amounts of TOR made available to the Commission. The Member States are required to carry out checks themselves and to report to the Commission. However, the Commission retains important inspection powers in this field. To supervise the system for the collection of TOR several types of checks by the Commission are possible: checks on regulations, checks on documents and on-the-spot inspections.

The Commission is also required to respond to the observations made by the Court of Auditors in its Annual Report, special reports or preliminary findings letters and also to the observations and recommendations made by the European Parliament during the discharge procedure in respect of the implementation of the budget. The Commission ensures that the Member States apply the EU rules correctly and reports to the budgetary authority.

This report describes and analyses the operation of the inspection system for TOR for the period 2013 to 2015.

ESO: Background information: Financing of the EU budget: The own resources system http://www.europeansources.info/record/financing-of-the-eu-budget-the-own-resources-system/

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