Mr Audy, explain why the so-called "discharge procedure" is important for the public? What role does the annual Court of Auditors' report play?
 
The EU funds public policies with money from its citizens, and the European Parliament, which represents European citizens, has the power to approve or reject the European Commission's implementation of the budget, a sort of discharge of accounts and transactions by the Commission during the year.
 
The report of the Court of Auditors is important because Parliament has no means of investigation. The Court of Auditors examines all accounting transactions in the year in the form of an external audit; with internal audits ones being done by the Commission services. The auditors then draw up an annual report, which includes a statement of assurance about the accounts and underlying operations.
 
This is an important document for us the Budgetary Control Committee so we can prepare a report for our fellow MEPs for the final vote on the budget in 2009.
 
Have you seen any progress in the implementation of the budget of 2007 compared to 2006? Would you say that there is still room for improvement?
 
This is the first year of the new control system established by the Commission, introducing the management of certification authorities and audit authorities at national level. The management is shared with countries.
 
Also, 2007 is the first year of the new 2007-2013 budget cycle. Reports from the Commission and the Court of Auditors say the new system is better than the old one and that we have better security with this new control system.
 
Nevertheless, we still see abnormally high number of error rates. Speaking personally, I am very concerned by the number of errors, especially in shared management with EU Members.
 
So, there is an improvement in the system, but it is not significant. Indeed if there was a very important improvement we would have a statement of assurance from the Court, which is not the case for the underlying transactions.  
 
(Ed. Mr Audy refers to a statement of assurance (DAS) which the Court of Auditors provides as to the reliability of the accounts of all revenue and expenditure of the Community transactions).
 
On the other hand, the Court gave a positive statement of assurance on the annual accounts themselves, with no reservations. Previously there was a statement of assurance with reservations.
 
It is important that countries are aware that the credibility of the shared management requires a greater share of their surveillance and requires that European institutions are aware that many errors are related to the implementation of regulations that are too complicated.
 
We must simplify our procedures because the more complicated regulations are, the more errors there are: it's a cycle. It is also perhaps time to review the allocation of EU funds to make it simpler and more understandable, especially by the final beneficiary.
 
What are the good points and bad points of the 2007 Budget?
 
The strong point is that management has been a positive, it accounts for less than 2% of errors, so things are going well. Where things aren't going so well is in the agricultural sector and especially in the structural funds, where there are error rates of 11% which are really too high. We need to have a discussion about what is an acceptable error rate - is it 2%, 3%, 4%, 5%?
 
With a budget of €100 billion it is inconceivable to have zero errors. So can we control everything? I ask this because there is a problem related to cost control. Maybe people won't agree to pay administrative costs to control everything.
 
Today we consider that things are going well when it is below 2% of errors. The vast majority of expenses are with error rates between 2% and 5%; it means that between 95-98% of the budget takes place without errors. 
  
The trend is good, even if there are things that are not satisfactory, that's very clear. Nevertheless, I believe the time has come to put everything on the table. We must have a dialogue between the EU (Council, Commission and Parliament) and Member States and national parliaments and national audit offices.
 
It is important that everyone is around the table discussing the system we have put in place for the next financial perspectives 2013-2019.
 
Note for readers: In euro jargon this procedure is known as the "discharge procedure" which is the moment the budget and implementation of the budget becomes the responsibility of the Parliament, thus taking control away from the Commission. This is when the budget is closed with the Parliament granting, postponing or refusing the "discharge".