On discharge in respect of the implementation of the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2024, Section III – Commission, executive agencies and the ninth, tenth and eleventh European Development Funds

OPINION

The Committee on Development calls on the Committee on Budgetary Control, as the committee responsible, to incorporate the following into its motion for a resolution:

1. Is very concerned about the consequences of severe budget cuts in development and humanitarian aid from countries that have been leading donors; insists that, against this background, the fully transparent, effective and efficient use of EU funds becomes more important than ever; stresses that, in time of constrained public finances, EU development spending must be firmly grounded in principles of fiscal responsibility; reiterates that it would be a serious mistake to decrease development funding in favour of defence and security spending, since fragile states and societies are a source of instability and insecurity which often reach beyond their borders;

2. Reminds the Commission to respect the budget allocations as defined in Regulation (EU) 2021/947 (NDICI - Global Europe), in particular the financial envelope for Sub-Saharan Africa, which should be at least EUR 29,181 billion for the seven years 2021 – 27; is concerned that 348 million are lacking to reach this minimum amount, as the financial envelope for Sub-Saharan Africa has been reduced, following the MFF revision in February 2024; urges the Commission to present measures to close this gap and to prioritise actions delivering measurable results;

3. Welcomes the fact that the European Court of Auditors (ECA), unlike for previous years, provided a specific assessment of the regularity of underlying transactions for MFF heading 6 ‘Neighbourhood and the world’, and estimated the level of error to be 4.9 %; points out that this level of error is still considerably above the materiality threshold of 2.0%; whilst noting the Commission's explanation in its replies to the ECA's annual report, calls on the Commission to make decisive and sustained efforts to decrease this error rate; invites the Commission, furthermore, to provide the European Parliament with concrete examples where errors identified by the ECA were resolved in subsequent accounting years, due to controls and corrections by the Commission, as claimed in its response to the ECA;

4. Notes with concern that serious transparency problems persist with regard to ECA's access to documents of some international organisations and international financial institutions, leading to delays and hindering the proper execution of the ECA's audit tasks; reiterates that full and unconditional audit access is essential for credibility and accountability commends the Commission for its efforts to address these problems and underlines the need to continue developing a strong and trustful EU-UN partnership to counter the risk of erosion of the multilateral order and to work towards the Sustainable Development Goals; stresses that cooperation with multilateral bodies must remain transparent and efficient;

5. Notes with concern that a large proportion of the errors identified concerned contracts implemented by international organisations, international financial institutions, state agencies and decentralised actors under indirect management; calls for concrete, time-bound measures to bring that error rate down and ensure full transparency and accountability of indirect management; stresses the need for clearer guidance for implementing partners;

6. Reiterates its demand that implementing partners strictly comply with visibility rules in order to ensure transparent information for the public; requests stricter follow-up in cases of repeated non-compliance;

7. Insists that it is of paramount importance that the Commission ensures that supported projects have a lasting impact, in line with the ECA recommendations on project durability; underlines that, to achieve this durability, meaningful and inclusive local ownership is essential, with particular consideration for the role of local authorities and institutions complemented by meaningful presence on the ground of, and monitoring of project implementation by, the relevant EU delegation, which needs to be adequately staffed; recalls the importance of close cooperation with local communities, organisations and civil society to ensure legitimacy, sustainability and effectiveness of EU support;

8. Recalls the importance of making EU funds accessible also to local implementing partners which often lack proper information and struggle with cumbersome administrative requirements; calls on the Commission to adapt rules, procedures and grant volume to their size, capacity and operating context and to guarantee adequate and sustained funding for NGOs and other local partners and civil society organisations active in development cooperation and humanitarian aid; encourages, moreover, the participation of local evaluators and evaluation organisations, to reinforce their assessment capacities; calls for further simplification of administrative procedures for small local actors;

9. Notes the ECA's observation, in its special report 17/2025, that the share of joint EU and member states Aid for Trade (AfT) directed towards least developed countries (LDCs) is moving further away from the target of 25 % of total AfT by 2030, and has dropped to 12% only; welcomes that the Commission accepts the ECA's recommendations to systematically assess this situation and looks forward to seeing improvements; invites the Commission to set interim milestones to monitor progress toward the 2030 target; stresses the importance of free and fair trade and entrepreneurship that respects the economic sovereignty of partners and improved governance in partner countries to ensure sustainable results; underlines that AfT is an important tool to build the trade capacity and infrastructure of LDCs to benefit from trade opening, including access to regional and global trade; recalls that LDCs are not a homogenous group, as some prioritise agricultural production in order to achieve food security, whilst others seek to diversify production to develop exports; notes with concern that LDCs generally do not have sufficiently strong institutional frameworks to be able to express their AfT needs at regional level; recalls that AfT is part of overall official development assistance (ODA), with grants and concessional loans targeted at trade-related programmes and projects, thereby improving economic opportunities and reducing the structural causes of poverty, therefore also of forced irregular migration in the long term; notes that, in light of the decline in the LDCs share and the growing importance attributed to the Global Gateway strategy, which focusses on mobilising private sector investment, the EU needs a special approach and strategy for fragile contexts;

10. Emphasises that efficient and transparent use of funds is a prerequisite for EU-funded measures to enable sustainable human and inclusive economic development and decent job creation at local level; calls on the Commission to systematically monitor and publish this impact in the future, particularly in the context of aid for trade, infrastructure programmes, vocational training and other investment aid.

ANNEX: DECLARATION OF INPUT

The rapporteur for opinion declares under his exclusive responsibility that he did not include in his opinion input from interest representatives falling within the scope of the Interinstitutional Agreement on a mandatory transparency register, or from representatives of public authorities of third countries, including their diplomatic missions and embassies, to be listed in this Annex pursuant to Article 8 of Annex I to the Rules of Procedure.

INFORMATION ON ADOPTION BY THE COMMITTEE ASKED FOR OPINION