The Committee on Budgetary Control adopted the report
by Ingeborg GRÄßLE (EPP, DE) on the Court of Auditors'
special reports in the context of the 2013 Commission
discharge.
Members recalled that the special reports of the Court
of Auditors provided information on issues of concern related to
the implementation of funds, which were thus useful for Parliament
in exercising its role of discharge authority. They specified that
Parliament’s observations on the special reports of the Court
of Auditors form an integral part of Parliament's resolution on
general discharge in respect of the implementation of the general
budget of the European Union for the financial year 2013, Section
III – Commission.
Members went on to discuss each of the special reports
and made certain recommendations designed to improve the use of
Community funding.
To recall, these special reports relate to the
following matters:
- Special Report No 11/2013 of the Court of Auditors
entitled "Getting the Gross National Income (GNI) data right: a
more structured and better-focused approach would improve the
effectiveness of the Commission’s verification"
- Special Report No 13/2013 of the Court of Auditors
entitled "EU Development Assistance to Central Asia"
- Special Report No 15/2013 of the Court of Auditors
entitled "Has the Environment component of the LIFE programme been
effective?"
- Special Report No 16/2013 of the Court of Auditors
entitled "Taking stock of 'single audit' and the Commission's
reliance on the work of national audit authorities in
cohesion"
- Special Report No 17/2013 of the Court of Auditors
entitled "EU Climate Finance in the context of External
Aid"
- Special Report No 18/2013 of the Court of Auditors
entitled "The reliability of the results of the Member States'
checks of the agricultural expenditure"
- Special Report No 1/2014 of the Court of Auditors
entitled "Effectiveness of EU-supported public urban transport
projects"
- Special Report No 2/2014 of the Court of Auditors
entitled "Are Preferential Trade Arrangements appropriately
managed?"
- Special Report No 3/2014 of the Court of Auditors
entitled "Lessons from the European Commission’s development
of the second generation Schengen Information System (SIS
II)"
- Special Report No 4/2014 of the Court of Auditors
entitled "Integration of EU water policy objectives with the CAP: a
partial success"
- Special Report No 5/2014 of the Court of Auditors
entitled "European banking supervision taking shape - EBA and its
changing context"
- Special Report No 6/2014 of the Court of Auditors
entitled "Cohesion policy funds support to renewable energy
generation — has it achieved good results?"
- Special Report No 7/2014 of the Court of Auditors
entitled "Has the ERDF successfully supported the development of
business incubators?"
- Special Report No 8/2014 of the Court of Auditors
entitled "Has the Commission effectively managed the integration of
coupled support into the single payment scheme?"
- Special Report No 9/2014 of the Court of Auditors
entitled "Is the EU investment and promotion support to the wine
sector well managed and are its results on the competitiveness of
EU wines demonstrated?"
- Special Report No 10/2014 of the Court of Auditors
entitled "The effectiveness of European Fisheries Fund support for
aquaculture"
- Special Report No 11/2014 of the Court of Auditors
entitled "The establishment of the European External Action
Service"
- Special Report No 12/2014 of the Court of Auditors
entitled "Is the ERDF effective in funding projects that directly
promote biodiversity under the EU biodiversity strategy to
2020?"
- Special Report No 13/2014 of the Court of Auditors
entitled "EU support for rehabilitation following the earthquake in
Haiti"
- Special Report No 14/2014 of the Court of Auditors
entitled "How do the EU institutions and bodies calculate, reduce
and offset their greenhouse gas emissions?"
- Special Report No 15/2014 of the Court of Auditors
entitled "The External Borders Fund has fostered financial
solidarity but requires better measurement of results and needs to
provide further EU added value"
- Special Report No 16/2014 of the Court of Auditors
entitled "The effectiveness of blending regional investment
facility grants with financial institution loans to support EU
external policies"
- Special Report No 17/2014 of the Court of Auditors
entitled "Can the EU’s Centres of Excellence initiative
contribute effectively to mitigating chemical, biological,
radiological and nuclear risks from outside the EU?"
- Special Report No 19/2014 of the Court of Auditors
entitled "EU Pre-accession Assistance to Serbia"
- Special Report No 20/2014 of the Court of Auditors
entitled "Has ERDF support to SMEs in the area of e-commerce been
effective?"
- Special Report No 21/2014 of the Court of Auditors
entitled "EU-funded airport infrastructures: poor value for
money".
A summary of the special
reports in question may be found on the Court of Auditors’
website.