EU Accountability Conference
14 October 2014
Accountability in the EU
Accounting for performance –
How to account for policy and regulatory
impact
Manfred Kraff
Deputy Director-General DG Budget
Landscape review on accountability
•
Starting point of a necessary debate
•
Main focus on the role of external auditors
•
Important element of Court's theoretical model:
Transparency in accountability reporting
o
European Commission
o
Member States’ administrations
Performance reporting (1)
•
Enhanced Commission reporting on performance
o
Art 318 TFEU Report on the evaluation of the Union’s finances
based on the results achieved
o
Annual Activity Reports
o
Management Plans
• Work in progress
o
o
Improvements in each annual reporting cycle
Strengthened standing instructions (inputs, outputs, results,
impacts, general and specific objectives, short-/ medium-/longterm indicators, milestones, …)
o Performance framework for spending and non-spending
activities
Performance reporting (2)
•
Multi-Annual Financial Framework 2014-2020
o
Better definition of general and specific objectives
o
Reliable information from Member States:
Reinforced legal requirements, yet challenging
•
Juncker-Commission
o
Mission letters of Vice-Presidents- and Commissioners-designate:
“… to make sure that every action we take delivers maximum
performance and value added.”
o
Objective: “stronger performance culture … including by
enhancing performance based budgeting across the Commission.”
Performance based budgeting (PBB) (1)
• PBB emerged more than 60 years ago as a key
driver of budgetary innovation in USA
• Two main models in the contemporary practice
o
Budget allocations based on actual or expected results
(which are established by using specific “formulas”)
o
Informed decisions by budget authority considering data
on results (which are inserted into budget statements)
• Present practice at the level of the EU:
Programme Statements attached to draft budget
o
Main instrument for justifying requested appropriations
o
Objectives, indicators, targets, outputs, …
Performance based budgeting (PBB) (2)
• Request of European Parliament to establish an
Inter-Institutional Working Group (IIWG) on PBB
o
Identification of best practice in Member States and Third
Countries
o
Analysis of state of the art in academic discussions
o
Definition of needs of Budget Authority
o
Feasibility of obtaining relevant, reliable and timely data
o
Estimation of related costs
=> Avoid expectation gaps
=> Common understanding concerning PBB model
Thank you for your attention!