Spain, among countries with the lowest absorption of funds in 2020, according to EU auditor

Madrid, 15 Mar Spain stood in the queue of the Member States in 2020 in terms of absorption of structural funds, along with Italy and Croatia, said European Court of Auditors member Baudilio Tomé Muguruza on Tuesday in a hearing at the Joint Commission for the European Union (EU) of the Congress of Deputies . “At the end of 2020, 45% of the structural and investment funds had yet to be absorbed” (period 2014-2020), said Tomé, who appeared in the parliamentary committee to break down the “Annual Report of the European Court of Auditors on the 2020 accounts”, published in October last year. Tomé insisted that the report showed that in the EU “outstanding expenditure commitments amounted to more than 300 billion euros”, which is “more than the Community's own annual budget”, he said. In this regard, he highlighted “considerable differences between Member States in the absorption” of these funds, and Spain, along with Italy and Croatia, is among the states with the lowest rate, he said. However, Tomé also noted that “many countries know that programs can be liquidated up to three years after the budgetary framework expires”. CONCURRENCY OF SEVERAL SOURCES OF FUNDING In the coming years, the monitoring and management of several sources of funding will be involved, such as the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) 2021-2027, endowed with more than one trillion euros, and another 750 billion euros within the framework of the Next Generation Recovery Programme (NGEU) launched to mitigate the effects of the covid-19 crisis. said the member of the Court. Along these lines, Tomé stressed that in order to audit the implementation of the Next Generation program and, in particular, the Recovery and Resilience Mechanism, the Community Court of Auditors “is carrying out a thorough analysis to define the methodology”, given that the latter “is performance-based, a new spending logic different from that which has been applied until now in the implementation of the EU budget”. In this context, Tomé insisted on the importance of the Court in “safeguarding the financial interests of the Union”, but insisted that it is “a collective effort that involves many actors, including the bodies of external control, the Member States and the European Court of Auditors”. FIGHT AGAINST FRAUD The auditor also explained that while “the Tribunal does not have the mandate to investigate cases of alleged fraud against financial interests” of the Twenty-Seven, it does “contribute by reporting to the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF)” on suspected cases identified. During his appearance, the auditor announced that the Court of Auditors will publish new reports on issues related to the environment and natural resources, as well as others related to 5G network security, battery production or the European chip strategy. He also recalled that the institution has also acted in the context of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, in collaboration with other supreme audit institutions, to encourage the Russian entity to abandon its participation in international bodies such as the International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI) or the Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions of Europe (EUROSAI). CHIEF mmc/ads