European accounts to be approved
European Parliament committee recommends approval of Commission's accounts
The European Parliament’s key budgetary control committee has recommended
that the Commission’s 2004 accounts be discharged, allowing a formal approval on
April 27 by all MEPs. The committee, however, called for continued improvements
to often-criticised European Union accounting controls, requesting ‘better
management of EU funds…jointly managed by the commission and the member states’.
This has been a common complaint of EU anti-fraud Commissioner Siim Kallas
who wants more openness by governments about the recipients of EU funds under
national management. As a result, the committee has proposed that ‘national
management declarations’ are introduced for shared-management programme
accounts, signed by the relevant member state agencies and ministries.