The Budgetary Control Committee of the European Parliament today unanimously adopted Monica Macovei's Report on the budgetary management of European Union pre-accession funds in the areas of judicial systems and the fight against corruption in the candidate and potential candidate countries.

The Report calls for higher spending in projects enhancing both judicial and the fight against corruption reforms in the enlargement countries. "Between 2007 and 2012, around €274 million was invested in judicial reform and around €51 million in the fight against corruption. Compared to the overall EU pre-accession envelope, judicial reform and the anti-corruption projects only represent 3.13% and 0.52% of the EU pre-accession assistance. This is not enough and I expect this to change under IPA II", Rapporteur Macovei stated. She wants more and precise indicators to measure the effectiveness of the projects and an analysis on whether the results of the projects justified the funding.

In addition, the Report highlights that sustainability remains an issue. "Taxpayers' money is spent on projects not always sustainable over time. For instance, in Croatia, EU pre-accession assistance funded an anti-corruption agency with investigative powers while in Kosovo it funded such an anti-corruption agency without such powers. This proves that a clear regional strategy based on a long-term perspective is needed", underlined Macovei.

"During the preparation of the Report, I had extensive talks with the European Commission and I welcome its decision to modify its approach and commitment to work on a clearer definition of the scope of projects in the area of judicial systems and the fight against corruption. This will allow for more consistent monitoring and reporting in these areas in the next programming period 2014-2020", she concluded.

For further information:

Monica Luisa MACOVEI MEP, tel.: +32-228-45225

Eugen Sandu, EPP Group Press and Communications Service, tel.: +32-472-547584

Note to Editors

The EPP Group is by far the largest political group in the European Parliament with 275 Members from 27 Member States.