The European Court of Auditors issued a positive opinion on the reliability of EU accounts for the financial year 2015 and stated that revenue underlying the accounts for the year 2015 was legal and regular. However, the payments underlying the accounts for the year 2015 were materially affected by error. Hence, the Court of Auditors issued an adverse opinion on the legality and regularity of payments underlying the accounts. The level of error was estimated at 3.8%. Even though this figure was lower than last year’s result, it still significantly exceeded the materiality threshold of 2%.
Mr Šadžius noted that European institutions had partially lost the confidence of European citizens and were facing a major challenge in restoring their trust. In the opinion of the Court of Auditors, a reform with firm financial background was needed, i.e. proper accountability, correct application of financial rules, rational use of funds as well as transparency and guarantees related to sound use of funds must be ensured in the EU.
While referring to the 2015–2016 special reports of the Court of Auditors, Mr Šadžius singled out the reports on the effectiveness of economic and financial management and the report on the EU nuclear decommissioning assistance programmes in Lithuania, Bulgaria and Slovakia. “The latter indicates that in the period from 2010 to 2015 the initial Lithuanian, Bulgarian and Slovakian estimates for the decommissioning cost have been updated, thus the total decommissioning cost has increased by 40% to 5.7 billion euros. The Court of Auditors suggests that the dedicated funding programmes for nuclear decommissioning, based on the current funding model, be discontinued after 2020. If a clear need for the use of EU funds beyond 2020 is established, any future EU funding should be time limited and based on appropriate levels of Member State co-financing. The reports on the effectiveness of economic and financial management demonstrate greater focus put on performance audits and reveal thematic changes in the agenda of the Court of Auditors,” Mr Šadžius said.
