91997E4109

WRITTEN QUESTION P-4109/97 by Mirja Ryynänen (ELDR) to the Commission (18 December 1997)

Subject: Support for organizations receiving operational grants

The Commission allocates operational grants to numerous organizations. The problem for the organizations is that they only receive information about the size of their grant at a late stage, in the middle of the year or in the autumn. This situation makes it impossible for them to plan activities sensibly and makes them uncertain about initiating projects which will cost money.

It would facilitate matters if organizations which had proved to be serious cooperation partners were paid half the operational grant for the coming year with the amount for the rest of the year being varied to take account of any changes in the amount for the whole year.

What is the Commission doing to enable operational grants to function better from the point of view of their users?

Answer given by Mr Pinheiro on behalf of the Commission (18 February 1998)

The Community budget is not implemented by prior apportionment of operational appropriations among a large number of organisations. An organisation may obtain financial support from the Commission if it puts up a project which, firstly, matches a measure included in the general budget by the budgetary authority and if, then, that measure meets the specific requirements of the Community rules governing the implementation of the specific measure.

Hence the need for a specific review of the application from the future recipient by the Commission.

Proportionate allocation of appropriations as envisaged by the Honourable Member would not allow the Commission to comply with the requirements of (Article 2) of the Financial Regulation designed to ensure that public funds are used in accordance with the principles of sound financial management, and in particular those of economy and cost-effectiveness.

As to enhancing the efficiency with which operational appropriations are put to use, the 'specific review' mentioned earlier is increasingly spread uniformly over the entire year in order to ensure that the budget is executed in a way and to reduce delays between the lodging of an application and the Commission's response.