European Parliament's Budgetary Control Committee approved on 28 March the European Commission's 2009 budget spending. This adoption, under the “budget discharge” procedure, comes after the Commission had given undertakings, inter alia to step up pressure on EU Member States to take more political responsibility for, and improve their supervision of, their national authorities' spending of EU funds.

The key issue reported by the Parliament's Budgetary Control Committee when it came to deciding whether to postpone or grant the discharge was the lack of transparency regarding spending by Member States under what is called “shared management”.  For the Parliament, it is hard to explain to citizens that it is not possible to say exactly what 80% of the EU's budget is spent on and how. However, as highlighted by the Parliament, this is a problem that cannot be addressed by the Commission alone, although it is responsible in the end.

In previous meetings, Budgetary Control Committee MEPs had stressed that they wanted to see better management and control systems put in place. They had also underlined the need for national politicians to take political responsibility for the way the EU money is spent in their countries, by signing national management declarations. Commissioner Algirdas Šemeta, responsible for Taxation, Customs, Anti-fraud and Audit, agreed to work on a policy template to this end and to recommend that Member States give it their political endorsement.

More transparency and control by national authorities on budget management

In this regard, Commissioner Šemeta also responded positively to Parliament's other wishes, including the systematic use of interruption or suspension of payments in cases where Member States' control and management systems prove deficient, improving recovery of incorrectly-spent funds and putting more effort into making the rules on spending EU money less complex.

The Parliament has also welcomed Commissioner Šemeta agreement to step up the attempts to present Member States' performance transparently and to convince them to do better, foreseeing corrective mechanisms so that those no complying with mechanisms face financial consequences in case of mismanagement. As highlighted by Parliament's Budget Commission, this effort for transparency is even more important in times of austerity, which also put pressure on the EU budget.

Parliament as a whole will vote on the discharge decision at its May plenary session.