More insight into effectiveness of European assistance programmes desirable
Allocation of more than € 440 billion to eurozone countries in difficulties has limited monitoring
Since 2010, more than € 440 billion of loans have been paid to eurozone countries in financial difficulties. This is organized via diverse assistance programmes. The Netherlands has also contributed to this. The importance of these assistance programmes cannot be underestimated: with the aid and the corresponding conditions, the eurozone countries concerned should recover from the economic crisis. And the loans must be repaid on time. It is therefore important for all parties involved to have a good understanding of the spending and insight into the effectiveness of the assistance programmes. It seems, however, that the opportunity to monitor the spending of these loans from European emergency funds is limited. Until now, there has been little examination of the effectiveness of the assistance programmes by the relevant authorities. There have been no independent evaluations of the assistance programmes to date. The control and accountability of these assistance programmes can be strengthened.