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 on development and humanitarian aid from countries that have been leading donors; insists that, against this background, the transparent, effective and efficient use of EU funds becomes more important than ever; reiterates that development and security funding are two sides of the same coin and should reinforce each other;

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;

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, encourages the Commission to make further 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 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; 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;

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 efforts to bring that error rate down and bring more transparency into indirect management;

6. Reiterates its demand that implementing partners comply with visibility rules;

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, local ownership through the involvement of local civil society is essential, complemented by meaningful presence on the ground of, and monitoring of project implementation by, the relevant EU delegation; recalls the importance of working closely with local civil society to ensure legitimacy, sustainability and effectiveness of EU support to local communities;

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 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;

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; underlines that AfT is an important tool to facilitate LDC's access to regional and global trade.