The administrative burden consists of the costs that grant recipients face in complying with administrative requirements throughout the grant process (from application to reporting). Grant recipients often consider this burden to be high. When implementing EU legislation, the Netherlands may impose additional requirements on grant recipients. This is known as gold-plating.
What are we auditing?
The Netherlands Court of Audit is examining the administrative burden on grant recipients of the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and whether the Netherlands is succeeding in implementing the ERDF while keeping that burden low by avoiding unnecessary gold-plating. For the ERDF, this is the responsibility of the Minister of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy.
The Netherlands Court of Audit is examining:
- The administrative burden that ERDF grant recipients face in practice and the source of that burden;
- The administrative burden on grant recipients caused by gold-plating and whether the decision to apply gold-plating is adequately substantiated;
- The costs in time and money of the administrative burden on grant recipients and what proportion of those costs is caused by gold-plating.
Why are we auditing this?
The Dutch government’s policy is that EU legislation must be implemented while keeping the administrative burden low. It is not known whether the Netherlands is doing so successfully for EU funds, nor whether the high burden experienced in this context is caused by EU legislation or by the Netherlands. The responsible minister can use this insight when drawing up the national rules for the next seven-year period of the EU’s long-term budget (2028–2034), known as the Multiannual Financial Framework.
Current status
Administrative burden associated with the ERDF
Information the Court of Audit collects in the performance of its statutory tasks is confidential and not made public. Information shared between the Court of Audit and the auditee concerning the information it collects is not made public either and cannot be released under a freedom of information request.
We submit our reports to the House of Representatives. They are then published on our website.
Would you like to contribute to this audit?
The Netherlands Court of Audit invites you to share information that we can use in our audit. We therefore welcome your contributions, comments or experiences on this subject. You can share information by emailing bijdrage@rekenkamer.nl.
We will consider all contributions and treat them with care. Please bear in mind that you will not automatically receive feedback on your contribution.