The European Court of Auditors has put forward a Special Report pointing out a series of elements in the system of specific measures for agriculture in favour of the outermost regions of the Union and the smaller Aegean islands, whose implementation could be improved. This report assesses to what extent the new approach introduced in such scheme in its 2006 revision, has been adopted in order to improve the efficiency of the system.

The Special Report on the “Specific measures for agriculture in favour of the outermost regions of the Union and the smaller Aegean islands” presented by the European Court of Auditors emphasises the programming, implementation and monitoring of the measures, and contains recommendations intended to help the Commission and the Member States concerned improve the way the specific measures are managed.

The specific measures for the outermost regions were created to take account of the regions’ structural, social and economic situation, and were revised in 2006 with the aim to make a shift towards greater regional participation, and for more decentralisation and flexibility in decision-making, on the basis of programmes presented by Member States for approval by the European Commission

In its Report, the Court concludes that the new bottom-up, decentralised approach introduced by the 2006 reform of the specific measures has not been sufficiently applied in order to improve the effectiveness of the existing measures. On the basis of its observations, the Court makes recommendations intended to help the Commission and the Member States concerned improve the way the specific measures are managed.

Higher Commission's implication in the system of specific measures for agriculture in outermost regions and Aegean islands

During the programming and approval phase of the programmes, over a period of only six months, the Commission gave priority to the task of monitoring the compliance and consistency of the programmes rather than assuming its role as a manager, and thus actively contributing to the design of the programmes so as to ensure they were effective. This finding also applies to the procedure for modifying the programmes for subsequent years.

As regards the implementation of the programmes, the Court identified measures or actions which are likely to be at best partly effective as a result of their design. In addition, the existing control systems in the Member States concerned are not always suited to the diverse nature of the specific measures.

The Commission does not monitor the effectiveness of the specific measures regularly enough; it mainly confines itself to evaluating the measures over a five-year period. The annual implementation reports provided by the Member States are not harmonised enough to constitute a management information system for the Commission.