7 Annual report for 2003 on the Cohesion
Fund
| (26247)
16258/04
COM(04) 766
+ ADD 1
| Commission report: Annual report on the Cohesion Fund
Annex: Commission staff working document
|
| Legal base | — |
| Document originated | 15 December 2004
|
| Deposited in Parliament | 12 January 2005
|
| Department | Trade and Industry
|
| Basis of consideration | EM of 27 January 2005
|
| Previous Committee Report | None
|
| To be discussed in Council | No date set
|
| Committee's assessment | Politically important
|
| Committee's decision | Cleared
|
Background
7.1 The Cohesion Fund supports large-scale environmental and transport
projects in Member States with a Gross National Product of less
than 90% of the Community average. In 2003, four Member States
were eligible to receive support from the Cohesion Fund: Greece,
Ireland, Portugal and Spain.
7.2 The Commission produces annual reports on the
Fund.[27]
The document
7.3 The annual report for 2003 contains sections
on: budget implementation; the economic environment; preparing
the accession countries to implement the Cohesion Fund; coordination
with the Community's Structural Funds; inspections and findings;
irregularities and the suspension of assistance; and evaluation
and information. The annex to the report (ADD 1) provides detailed
supporting information.
7.4 The Commission reports that:
- the resources available to
the Cohesion Fund in 2003 amounted to €2,839
million;
- 99.8% (€2,826 million) of commitment appropriations
were implemented in 2003;
- the proportion of commitment appropriations to
the four beneficiary Member States was: Spain 54.4%; Greece 18.7%;
Ireland 4.1%; and Portugal 22.7%;
- transport (mainly railway projects) accounted
for 53.8% of commitment appropriations and the environment (mainly
the supply of drinking water, and the treatment of wastes) for
the rest;
- during 2003, the Commission conducted 27 missions
to audit projects and management systems in the four beneficiary
Member States. Problems were identified in all four; these mainly
concerned the procedures for awarding public contracts ; and
- Greece and Portugal notified the Commission of
irregularities, mostly concerned with non-compliance with the
rules on public contracts and applications for ineligible expenditure.
The 36 irregularities notified by Greece involve €121 million,
nearly all of which was deducted from payment requests made to
the Commission. Portugal reported ten irregularities involving
€21 million, which has been or is being recovered.
The Government's view
7.5 The Minister of State for Trade, Investment and
Foreign Affairs at the Department of Trade and Industry (Mr Douglas
Alexander) tells us that the Commission's report has no direct
policy implications for the United Kingdom and no new financial
implications.
Conclusion
7.6 It is encouraging that the rate of commitment
appropriations remained at such a high level in 2003. This helps
to avoid misallocation of resources in the Community's budgeting
system. We consider that the Commission's report provides a clear
and useful overview of the Cohesion Fund in 2003 and we are content
to clear it from scrutiny.
27 See, for example, the annual report for 2002: (25075)
15149/03; HC 42-ii (2003-04), para 10 ( 9 December 2003). Back
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