MEPs at the Budgetary Control Committee in the European Parliament approved the European Commission's management of EU spending under the 2011 budget. MEPs also underlined that spending by member states' administrations under the "shared management" regime - accounting for 80% of the EU budget - had not improved.

Budgetary Control Committee in the European Parliament urged EU member states to take more responsibility for managing EU funds spent on their territory. The committee approved the 2011 spending for which the Commission was responsible, after it replied satisfactorily to MEPs' questions about spending on rural development and regional policy, which are managed largely by member states, and research, which is managed by the Commission itself. EU Member States' contribution to 2011 budget was cut in €4.54 billion.

In 2011, accounting error rates were particularly high in rural development (7.7%) and regional policy (6%), increasing the overall error rate from 3.7% in 2010 to 3.9%. Jens Geier, MEP responsible for the report in the European Parliament, highlighted that these errors do not necessarily mean loss of funds or fraud, rather procedural or implementation mistakes. He also pointed out that EU member states could reduce error rates substantially by improving spending controls at national level.

MEPs also called on improving national accountability by introducing national declarations, to be signed by member states' national finance ministers, accepting responsibility for the management of EU funds by their national authorities and agencies. Moreover, the committee called for an end to the practice of financing projects that are physically completed before applying for funding, as they can hardly be checked.