An action plan to strengthen the Commission's supervisory role under shared management of structural actions

The Commission gives the highest priority to the exercise of its responsibilities for implementing the budget under Article 274 of the EC Treaty. In January 2005, it made it a strategic objective to strive for a positive statement of assurance (DAS) from the European Court of Auditors (“the Court”) and in January 2006, it adopted an Action Plan towards an Integrated Internal Control Framework in order to make progress toward this objective. The conclusions of the Court for 2006 show that the percentage of the Community budget subject to a positive assurance is growing. However, the Court also found that the area of structural actions has not shown improvements. This is an area subject to shared management between the Commission and the Member States.

Structural actions represent one of the core policies of the Union. They symbolise the central place of solidarity amongst the values of the Union. They promote economic development and social cohesion, boosting prosperity in the Union as a whole. The new programming period has shown how they can be adapted to the new demands of the Lisbon strategy for growth and jobs. It is therefore essential that the resources devoted to structural actions should be used to best effect, and that the principles of sound financial management are rigorously applied.