STATEMENTS BY THE COMMISSION

Regulation (EU) 2021/1060 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 June 2021 laying down common provisions on the European Regional Development Fund, the European Social Fund Plus, the Cohesion Fund, the Just Transition Fund and the European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund and financial rules for those and for the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund, the Internal Security Fund and the Instrument for Financial Support for Border Management and Visa Policy — Adoption of the legislative act

(2021/C 269 I/01)

Statement on clearance of pre-financing

The payment ceilings in the MFF regulation took into account the assumption that all pre-financing would be cleared annually. The Commission considers that the agreement reached by the co-legislators on the CPR might result in going beyond the applicable MFF ceilings for payment appropriations, taking into account the expected payment profiles. This might result in a payment backlog in the second half of the next period.

Statement on Structured dialogue under Temporary measures for the use of the Funds in response to exceptional and unusual circumstances

The provisions adopted by the co-legislators require the Commission to immediately inform the Parliament and the Council about the assessment of the situation regarding the exceptional and unusual circumstances. The co-legislators also require the Commission to inform them immediately about the envisaged follow-up through temporary measures for the use of the Funds and to take due consideration of the positions taken and views expressed through the structured dialogue to which the Commission may be invited by the Parliament or the Council.

Those requirements are not in accordance with Article 291(2) and (3) TFEU and with Comitology Regulation No 182/2011, which do not provide for any involvement of the Parliament and the Council in the control of the exercise of the implementing powers conferred on the Commission. They may result in situations where the Commission’s implementing powers would be constrained. Therefore, the Commission can only satisfy these requirements in so far as these do not impinge on its implementing powers as they are regulated under Article 291 TFEU and Comitology Regulation No 182/2011.

These provisions cannot in any event be replicated in a different legal framework where no exceptional and unusual circumstances are provided for.

Statement on further measures to protect the EU budget and the Next Generation EU against fraud and irregularities by requiring an obligatory use of a single data-mining tool provided by the Commission

In the Inter-institutional Agreement between the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission on budgetary discipline, on cooperation in budgetary matters and on sound financial management, as well as on new own resources, including a roadmap for the introduction of new own resources, Points 30 to 33 require the Commission to make available an integrated and interoperable information and monitoring system including a single data-mining and risk-scoring tool to access and analyse the required data with a view to a generalised application by Member States. In addition, the three institutions agreed to sincerely cooperate, in the course of the legislative procedure relating to the relevant basic acts, to ensure the follow up to the European Council conclusions of July 2020 regarding this element.

The Commission considers that the agreement reached by the co-legislators under Article 69(2) (responsibilities of Member States) on the obligatory use of a single data-mining tool and the collection and analysis of data on the beneficial owners of the recipients of funding is not sufficient to enhance the protection of the Union budget and Next Generation EU against fraud and irregularities and to ensure efficient checks on conflicts of interests, irregularities, issues of double funding, and criminal misuse of the funds. Therefore, the approach agreed by the co-legislators in the Common Provisions Regulation does not appropriately reflect the desired ambition and spirit of the Inter-institutional Agreement.

Statement on the protection of the EU budget through the use of a percentage retention of payments to shared management programmes

The Commission considers that the agreement by the co-legislators to reduce the retention rate on shared management payments from 10% to 5% creates an increased risk of the EU budget paying amounts that are affected by irregularities.

To minimise this risk, the Commission will make an appropriate use of interruptions and suspensions of payments to programmes whenever it considers that the 5% retention rate is insufficient to cover the amount of any potential irregularities.