European Union (EU) auditors gave their first ever overall approval of the 27-nation bloc's accounts on Monday, but said the need for improvements remains.
"The 2007 annual accounts of the European Communities give a fair presentation, in all material respects, of the financial position of the European Communities and the results of their operations and cash flows," the European Court of Auditors said in an annual report.
It was the first time since the introduction of new accounting rules a decade ago that the court endorsed the EU's overall book-keeping. In the previous 13 years, the court had simply refused to sign off on the annual accounts due to too much irregularities.
Although the court gave its overall approval, for most spending areas it could not provide a clean opinion.
"The court still finds that payments made to final beneficiaries, such as farmers and project promoters running EU-funded projects, have a too high level of error," it said.
As in previous years cohesion policies, which cost 42 billion euros (some 54 billion U.S. dollars) in aid to EU poor regions, are the area most affected by errors. Following the court's sample estimate at least 11 percent of the value of reimbursed cost claims should not have been paid out.
In agriculture and natural resources, which cost 51 billion euro last year, the estimated overall error rate is still material. Rural development, with its often complex rules, accounts for a disproportionately large part of this error rate.
The estimated error rates in some spending, notably that previously covered under the headings "internal policies" and "external actions" have fallen, however not enough to affect the overall picture.
The court encouraged the EU and member states to improve supervisory and control systems. It also called for due consideration to be given to simplification.
"Well designed rules that are clear to interpret and simple to apply decrease the risk of error," the court said. (1 U.S. dollar =0.7846 euro)
Source: Xinhua
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