The Dutch government takes its responsibility for the use of EU money seriously.
On the third Wednesday in May, when the government submits its financial report and accounts to parliament, the responsible ministers declare that the euros the country received from the EU were spent in accordance with the rules.
Until financial year 2019, they had done so by means of a National Declaration in the Central Government Annual Financial Report. Since 2020, they have done so by means of a separate EU section in the annual reports of the ministers responsible for funds under shared management.
The Netherlands’ management and control systems have worked satisfactorily in recent years and expenditure, with the exception of that from the EAGF, has been legal and regular. The situation in 2024 is not yet clear. As no costs have been claimed from the European Commission for most of the funds for 2021-2027, the claims made in 2024 relate mainly to the previous period, 2014-2020. No data have been submitted to the Europa Commission for 2024, however, in respect of the ERDF (Minister of EZ) and JTF (Ministers of EZ and SZW), EMFF (Minister of LVVN) and ESF (Minister of SZW). The option of postponing the accounts of these funds for the last year of the period for a year has been exercised. It is therefore not known whether expenditure from these funds meets the conditions. It is known that the management and control systems in place for the AMIF and ISF worked satisfactorily in 2024 and the expenditure was legal and regular, as disclosed in the EU appendix to the Minister of J&V’s annual report.
The position of the agricultural funds deteriorated in 2024. The certifying authority, the Central Government Audit Service, issued an adverse opinion on both the EAGF and the EAFRD on account of potentially serious shortcomings in their governance systems. In the ADR’s opinion, the design of the control and sanction system represents a risk to EU money. According to the certifying authority, the accounts submitted to the European Commission for the two funds for the 2023-2024 financial year do not give a sufficiently true, complete and accurate view of the net expenditures.
For our report on the National Declaration, we checked every year until 2021 whether the National Declaration met the requirements. Since 2021, we have audited the preparation of the EU section in the ministers’ annual reports as part of our annual Accountability Audit of the preparation of operational management information. The Netherlands Court of Audit can carry out additional audits of the regularity, efficiency and effectiveness of expenditure if it thinks they are necessary.