Special report n. 24/2016 from the European Court of Auditors. “More efforts needed to raise awareness of and enforce compliance with State aid rules in cohesion policy”.

“Low awareness and significant non-compliance in Member States, say EU Auditors”.

The auditors point to a significant level of non-compliance with the rules on State aid in the area of cohesion policy and call for changes in the way projects are approved and monitored.

The press release stress that the auditors “…found a significant level of non-compliance. Almost 20 % of cohesion policy projects with State aid relevance were affected by State aid errors. At the same time, audit authorities in the Member States detected infringements at a far lower rate than either the Commission or the EU auditors. Member States found errors in just 3.6 % of relevant projects, while the EU auditors detected more than five times as many using a similar methodology”.

For more information:
Press release from European Court
Special report n. 24/2016