ECA/06/20
Luxembourg, 13 September 2006
Information note by the European Court of Auditors on Special Report No 7/2006 concerning Rural Development Investments:Do they effectively address the problems of rural areas?[1]
Rural areas face significant challenges such as depopulation and a scarcity of economic opportunities. The EU contribution for rural development for the period 2000-2006 is more than 60 billion euro. Around 40 % of this budget is used for rural development investments. They cover a wide range of projects, for which management and implementation is shared by the Commission and the Member States.
The Court's audit examined to what extent the rural development investment measures effectively address the problems of rural areas.
The audit found that the flexibility of the Rural Development Regulation (broad objectives, lack of priorities) and the lack of a clear strategy in the Member State programmes has led to a situation where it is unclear to which objective the funds have contributed. Member States' programmes focus largely on the agricultural sector and do not sufficiently take into account the characteristics of the geographical area supported.
There is a lack of effective eligibility conditions and selection procedures, with the result that funds are not targeted on the most needy geographical areas and beneficiaries. A lack of targeting also leads to a risk that projects are co-financed which would have taken place anyway.
In the absence of any Commission analysis, the Court determined how much money is spent in or outside rural areas. Based on a representative sample of 300 projects, it found that a significant part of the expenditure is implemented in areas which are not rural. When compared to the previous programming period (1994-1999), support for rural areas decreased significantly.
The main shortcoming found in the monitoring and evaluation system was that it does not provide sufficient and reliable information on what was financed and what was achieved.
On the basis of its audit, the Court finds that there is no balanced achievement of the two main objectives of the RD policy; the strong focus on agriculture puts at risk achievement of the second objective: contributing to economic and social cohesion of rural areas. In order to achieve this, the Commission should work with the Member States towards improved effectiveness of the policy. Important elements in this respect include clarifying the objectives and allocating funds to the most needy territories.
Special Report No 7/2006: http://www.eca.europa.eu/audit_reports/special_reports/docs/2006/rs07_06en.pdf http://www.eca.europa.eu/audit_reports/special_reports/docs/2006/rs07_06en.pdf
[1] The sole purpose of this Information Note is to provide a summary. The Special Report, as adopted by the Court of Auditors, is available on the Court's website (http://www.eca.europa.eu) and will shortly be published in the C series of the Official Journal of the European Union.
