opinion parliamentary committee draft, 12 December 2024
On discharge in respect of the implementation of the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2023, Section III - Commission and executive agencies
Document DEVE-PA-766830 · (2024/2019(DEC))
Committee on Development · Rapporteur: Charles Goerens
AI:In short
The Committee on Development's draft opinion on the 2023 EU budget discharge expresses concern over crises, poverty, and climate change reversing progress on sustainable development goals, and stresses the need for transparent and effective use of EU development funds. It urges the Commission to reduce the high error rate in spending, ensure audit access, enforce visibility rules, and provide sufficient funding for field visits, while welcoming positive audit examples and special reports.
Position. The Committee on Development calls on the Committee on Budgetary Control to incorporate its concerns and requests into the motion for a resolution on discharge for the 2023 budget.
Key points
- Is very concerned by the increasing number of crises worldwide, the rise in extreme poverty and hunger, and the increasingly frequent and severe consequences of climate change, which have halted or reverted progress on the sustainable development goals.
- Stresses the importance of using EU funds for development transparently, effectively and efficiently, and urges the Commission to reduce the high error rate found by the ECA for MFF heading 6 and the 9th, 10th and 11th EDF.
- Asks the Commission to intensify dialogue with international organisations to ensure the ECA has complete, unlimited and timely access to documents for audit work.
- Insists that implementing partners comply with visibility rules.
- Calls for sufficient budgetary means for EU Delegations to conduct field visits for monitoring project implementation and results.
- Welcomes ECA's special report 18/2024 on EU health support in Burundi, DRC and Zimbabwe, underlines findings on sustainability, and encourages the ECA to provide more special reports on international partnerships.
Who is affected
- The European Commission, which is urged to reduce error rates and ensure audit access.
- EU Delegations, which need more budget for field visits.
- Implementing partners of EU development funds, who must comply with visibility rules.
- International organisations receiving EU funds, which must provide audit access.
Figures and deadlines
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Full text
Opinion 7 paragraphs
The Committee on Development calls on the Committee on Budgetary Control, as the committee responsible, to incorporate the following into its motion for a resolution:
1. Is very concerned by the increasing number of crises worldwide, the rise in extreme poverty and hunger, and the increasingly frequent and severe consequences of climate change, all of which have halted or even reverted progress regarding the sustainable development goals (SDGs), with the SDG financing gap increasing to currently more than 4 trillion USD;
2. Against this background and worldwide tightening budgets for development, stresses that it is of utmost importance to use EU funds for development as transparently, effectively and efficiently as possible, strictly following established rules and procedures; expresses concern about the continuously high error rate found by the ECA for MFF heading 6 ‘Neighbourhood and the world‘ and the for the 9th, 10th and 11th EDF for the audit year 2023; urges the Commission to take further steps to reduce this error rate;
3. Welcomes that a number of earlier recommendations of ECA were implemented, but notes that an earlier recommendation to ensure that international organisations provide the ECA with complete, unlimited and timely access to documents for carrying out its audit work, is only partly implemented; whilst recognising the Commission’s efforts in this regard, asks the Commission to intensify its dialogue with the organisations concerned to achieve tangible results;
4. Given the ongoing battle for narratives in most regions of the world, insists that implementing partners comply with visibility rules;
5. Welcomes the positive examples provided by the ECA on effective controls implemented by the Commission; regrets, however, in that context, that the ECA found that EU Delegations do not always have enough budget to conduct sufficient field visits for monitoring the implementation of project activities and the achievement of intended results; calls for sufficient budgetary means to conduct such field visits;
6. Welcomes ECA’s special report 18/2024 on EU financial support for health systems in selected partner countries (Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Zimbabwe) and underlines in particular the findings on the sustainability of health systems and maintenance of equipment delivered, to ensure that EU involvement has a lasting effect; points out that the lessons learnt must be extrapolated to other global challenges as far as possible; encourages the ECA to continue to provide special reports relevant to international partnerships, on a regular basis.