Report on the National Declaration 2014

Dutch declaration to account for the use of EU funds under shared management

The National Declaration 2014 accounts for the €1,286 million in EU funds that the Netherlands spent under shared management with the European Commission in 2013. In the Court of Audit’s opinion, the Declaration is in order. The government’s declaration to account for its use of the funds gives a good view of the management and use of EU funds in the Netherlands. However, it still contains no information on the Netherlands’ remittances to the EU. Despite our repeated requests for it to do so, the government does not wish to include this information in the National Declaration.
The Court of Audit also notes that there is a risk of EU funds being spent ineffectively and inefficiently. EU funds are first allocated to the member states. Only then does the Commission assess the programmes being funded. The Commission intends to manage more by results in the 2014-2020 programming period. The funds received by the member states will then be determined in part by the member states’ achievement of their Europe 2020 goals.