The European Court of Auditors is best known as the watchdog of the reliability and legality of the EU’s accounts. In its special reports it often undertakes an assessment of specific areas of Union activity, and it has published various reviews of specific aspects of agricultural expenditure over the years.
It can also submit opinions at the request of one of the other institutions of the Union, and it has just released an opinion on the Commission’s legislative proposals for the CAP post-2013 announced in October 2011.
The opinion focuses on whether and to what extent the Commission’s legislative proposals remedy weaknesses already identified by the Court following its audits. Subsequently it presents some further reflections resulting from the Court’s analysis of the proposals.
The opinion is comprehensive, addressing issues in all four of the main draft regulations in the Commission’s package. One of the guiding principles behind the Court’s observations is whether the proposals facilitate sound financial management by shifting from the current focus on compliance and financial implementation towards a performance-based system, with clear objectives and criteria against which performance can be measured.… Read the rest