MINELRES: EC public consultation "Have your say on EU financial rules"
[email protected]
[email protected]
Wed Nov 4 17:01:32 2009
Original sender: ECAS <[email protected]>
ECAS welcomes the Commission's: "Have your say on EU financial rules"
http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?
reference=IP/09/1542&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en
ECAS welcomes the launch by the European Commission on 20 October 2009
of a public consultation "Have your say on EU financial rules" which we
and others had demanded.
We urged widespread consultation because "EU funds are rightly open to a
wider range of beneficiaries irrespective of their geographical level of
operation and are to an increasing extent disbursed on a national and
regional basis" (ECAS letter from 20 August 2009). We therefore want to
encourage a huge response.
At European events when funding issues are raised, complaints about the
cumbersome nature of EU rules are generally greeted by "we are not
responsible, it's the financial regulation". However, now is a chance to
make a difference because the consultation relates precisely to revision
of the financial regulation.
The Commission is looking for practical input from beneficiaries about
grant conditions and their application, but also raises wider issues:
"How to make project management more user-friendly and administratively
less burdensome, whilst ensuring strict and adequate monitoring and
control of taxpayers' money by the Commission".
ECAS hopes the consultation will support the Commission in keeping zero
tolerance of fraud and financial mismanagement, whilst allowing for
tolerance of risk and flexibility in projects, genuine social
experimentation and access for new and innovative organizations. Zero
tolerance across the board can kill European civil society. It is making
procedures for form filling too cumbersome and requirements for
guarantees and co-funding too stringent.
In the economic downturn European funding represents a relatively safe
haven with financial perspectives agreed until 2013, but has to become
more flexible and user friendly to maximize its impact.
Over the years ECAS has published an annual funding guide for NGOs
< http://www.ecas-citizens.eu/content/view/188/144/ > and there has been
an enormous expansion in EU grants and projects covering a wide range of
civil society activities. Practically any innovative and genuinely
European project can find support somewhere in the EU budget, but can it
really in practice?
Please send your contributions to the European Commission before the
deadline of 18 December 2009!
For more information on how to take part in consultations please visit
the web-page of the European Commission, section "Public consultation on
the review of the Financial Regulation" or follow this link:
http://ec.europa.eu/budget/consultations/FRconsult2009_en.htm .
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