Annual report of the Cohesion Fund (2001)

The European Parliament adopted a resolution based on the own-initiative report drafted by Dana SCALLON (EPP-ED, Ireland) on the Commission's Annual Report. (Please see the summary of 21/05/03.) Parliament reminded the Commission of its undertaking to provide Parliament with a report on its ex post evaluations of individual projects, in order to give a global view of the effectiveness and impact of the Fund. Control of the Fund's activities on the ground still needs to be intensified and the number of audits carried out in 2001 was insufficient. The Commission should forward to Parliament the assessment of the economic impact of Cohesion Fund assistance with regard to both individual projects and overall activity, including the impact on the least qualified workers. Parliament regretted, too, the fact that the report gives no specific details concerning the appropriations outstanding under the Cohesion Fund. Finally, Parliament felt that transparency could be further enhanced by the inclusion in the report of a historical overview of the Fund's activities and by the addition of a full statistical annex, which would allow comparison between the different Member States on the basis of complete and corresponding figures.�