Reform of the procedure of the clearance of accounts

The European Parliament adopted a resolution based on an own-initiative report drafted by Jan MULDER (ELDR, NL) on reform of the clearance of accounts procedure. (Please refer to the document dated 10/12/02.) On the question of financial corrections, Parliament felt that the preventive and corrective nature of the clearance of accounts system should be complemented with a dissuasive element in order to protect the Union's financial interests. The Commission should bring forward a proposal to apply increasing financial corrections or other sanctions to Member States for repeated weaknesses in control systems. Parliament regretted that the Council had not yet adopted the proposal on extending the period to which a correction to expenditure may be applied form 24 to 36 months. It is essential to control the final impact of financial corrections. Corrections related to any particular legal infringements should be reimbursed by the perpetrator. Otherwise, these corrections would be illegal state aid.�