1. Namur, 28 October 2010 1 28th Conference of the Directors of EU Paying Agencies Recent Developments regarding the Management and Control of Agricultural Expenditure Michael Niejahr European Commission Directorate General for Agriculture and Rural Developement

2. Namur, 28 October 2010 2 Work since the last Conference in Oviedo  ECA DAS case and annual report  Commission proposal on the tolerable level of error in rural development  New and revised guidelines for financial clearance and the reinforcement of assurance system

3. Namur, 28 October 2010 3 ECA DAS cases and annual report  ECA annual report to be presented on 9 November  Overall situation not as positive as last year  Need to work together with a view to improving the situation again for financial year 2010 and thereafter  Need of closer cooperation between all parties involved

4. Namur, 28 October 2010 4 Commission proposal on the tolerable level of error in rural development  Tolerable level of error in the range between 2% and 5%  Error rate around the middle of this range acceptable  Tolerable level of error for the first pillar of the CAP remains below 2%

5. Namur, 28 October 2010 5 Commission proposal on the tolerable level of error in rural development – cont‘d  Current error rate slightly below 3%  Simplification important, but not enough to reduce the error rate below 2% without the risk of jeopardising the objectives of the policy  Further increase of on-the-spot controls not cost-efficient  Overall control costs for EAFRD already more than twice as high as for EAGF  Average costs of additional on-the-spot controls five times higher than average gain expected from these controls in terms of recovery of undue payments

6. Namur, 28 October 2010 6 Commission proposal on the tolerable level of error in rural development – cont‘d  Commission proposal does not imply acceptance of deficiencies in the national management and control systems in rural development  Commission proposal does not imply acceptance of high error rates at the level of individual paying agencies

7. Namur, 28 October 2010 7 New and revised guidelines for financial clearance and the reinforcement of assurance system  Revised guidelines for financial clearance  No additional work for certification bodies  Changes designed to improve reporting  New guidelines for the reinforcement of assurance system  Covering audit strategy and reporting  Valid for claim year 2010  Revised version for next year on the basis of experience and suggestions for improvements

8. Namur, 28 October 2010 8 Perspectives post-2013  Commission proposal for a revision of the Financial Regulation, including new rules for shared management  Accreditation of management bodies operating annual accounts  Management declaration of assurance and opinion thereon from independent audit body  Clearance of accounts by the Commission  Policy proposal for the CAP post-2013 end of 2010  Legislative proposals for the CAP post-2013 mid 2011

9. Namur, 28 October 2010 9 Thank You for Your Attention !