Europese Rekenkamer brengt rapport uit over Leader aanpak plattelandsontwikkeling (en) - Hoofdinhoud

Luxembourg, 16 November 2010

The European Court of Auditors has assessed whether the Leader approach has been implemented in ways that add value, while minimising the risks to sound financial management.

Leader is an approach for implementing the EU's rural development policy through local partnerships (Local Action Groups, commonly known as LAGs). The assumption behind the Leader approach is that there is an added value compared with traditional top-down implementation. Bottom-up approaches and interaction between different sectors at local level should mobilise local potential.

The LAGs bear the main responsibility for achieving the Leader added value and sound financial management. The European Commission and Member States share responsibility for supervising the LAGs' performance and ensuring that they follow the Leader approach and consistently achieve the highest standards of sound financial management.

The Court's audit found that LAGs implemented the Leader approach in ways that limited the potential for added value in terms of the 'Leader features' (such as bottom-up approach, local public-private partnerships, area-based local development strategies), although the Court found some examples of good practice.

For instance, local strategies should be at the heart of the Leader approach. In practice, LAGs did not focus on achieving the objectives of their local strategies.

The Court also found weaknesses in the soundness of the financial management by the LAGs. LAGs have not taken account of efficiency, particularly in awarding grants for projects that were already under way, or even completed, before the grant decision was made. Procedures were not always transparent and did not sufficiently demonstrate that the LAGs took decisions on an objective basis, free from conflicts of interest. These weaknesses echo those observed by the Court in the Annual Report for the financial year 2000.

The Commission and Member States have not been sufficiently demanding and share some responsibility with the LAGs for limiting the potential added value of the Leader approach. They have not taken sufficient action to limit the costs and risks. The Commission and Member States have tolerated the situation where LAGs do not have effective procedures to avoid conflicts of interest.

Concerning monitoring and evaluation, the Commission and Member States cannot demonstrate the added value achieved from implementing the Leader approach and have not evaluated the additional costs and risks involved.

In view of the persistent weaknesses, the Court recommends that the Commission and Member States clarify and enforce requirements to reduce the risk of deadweight (a situation where a subsidised project would have been wholly or partly undertaken without the grant aid) and ensure objective and properly documented project selection procedures. Robust procedures to avoid all risk of conflicts of interest are needed to comply with the Financial Regulation.

For the remainder of the 2007-2013 period, the Commission should ensure that Member States require the LAGs to set measurable objectives, specific to their local area, that can be achieved by the Leader programme. The Member States should require LAGs to account for achieving their local strategy objectives, for achieving added value through the Leader approach, and for the efficiency of the grant expenditure and the operating costs.

The purpose of this press release is to give a summary of the Special Report adopted by the Court of Auditors which is available on the Court’s Internet site (www.eca.europa.eu) and will be published shortly in a printed format.

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