Memorandum on Financial Management in the EU inquiry
Closed
What the inquiry looked at
“The Public Accounts Committee visited the European Commission in January 2015 and met with the European Commissioner for Budget and Human Resources in the college of the Juncker Commission to discuss the European Court of Auditor’s report on the EU’s accounts. The Committee has decided to hold an inquiry into the key findings of the European Court of Auditor's Annual Report 2014, informed by a National Audit Office memorandum on financial management in the EU. What is the European Court of Auditors? Every year the European Court of Auditors (ECA) audits the revenue and expenditure of the EU budget and provides its opinion on the extent to which the annual accounts are reliable and income and spending transactions comply with the applicable rules and regulations. EU budgetary spending totalled €142.5 billion in 2014, or around €300 for every citizen. This spending amounts to around one per cent of EU gross national income and represents approximately two per cent of total public spending of EU Member States. The EU budget is agreed annually—within the context of seven year financial frameworks—by the European Parliament and the Council. Ensuring that the budget is properly spent is primarily the responsibility of the European Commission, along with the other EU institutions and bodies. For around 80% of the spending (principally agriculture and cohesion) this responsibility is shared with the EU’s Member States.”
The committee's words, from the inquiry page on parliament.uk ↗.
What it found
Over the last decade, the UK Government has incurred at least £650 million in penalties to the European Commission (the Commission) because of errors in how UK public bodies have spent European Union (EU) funds. EU rules and regulations for spending EU funds are complex, and this in itself contributes to errors; however, UK governments have chosen to design programmes which have added to this complexity, driving up the risk of errors and penalties further. UK government departments have exhibited a distinct lack of urgency in tackling complexity and reducing the levels of penalties incurred. HM Treasury has not done enough to hold departments to account for spending EU funds, nor to encourage learning from best practice, nor to lead by example by improving the quality of information available on how well EU funds are spent in the UK.
What the government said
No government response is linked to this report.
How the inquiry ran
Each dot is a dated item listed on this page, from the inquiry's opening on 5 January 2016 to 8 September 2016.
- Oral evidence 25 Feb 2016
- Report 27 Apr 2016
- Correspondence 8 Sep 2016
What it recommended
The committee's recommendations are not listed here yet. Read them in 37th Report- Financial management of the European Union budget in 2014 ↗ on parliament.uk.
Evidence
Oral evidence sessions 1
- 25 Feb 2016No witnesses recordedparliament.uk ↗