PURPOSE: to present the final accounts of the 8th, 9th
and 10th European Development Funds (EDF) for the financial year
2013.
CONTENT: this communication presents the final
accounts of the 8th, 9th and 10th EDF, which must be presented to
the European Parliament, the Council and the Court of Auditors, in
accordance with the relevant provisions regarding the
EDF.
The document also includes a note accompanying the
accounts in which the accounting officer in charge of the EFD audit
certifies that the accounts present a true and fair view of the
financial position of the European Development Funds in all
material aspects (signed declaration of
assurance).
1. EDF objectives and implementation: the EDF is the main instrument for providing Union
aid for development cooperation to the African, Caribbean and
Pacific (ACP) States and Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs).
The 1957 Treaty of Rome made provision for its creation with a view
to granting technical and financial assistance, initially limited
to African countries which at that time were still colonised and
with which some Member States had historical links.
The EDF is not funded by the European Union's
budget. It is established by an
internal agreement of the Representatives of the Member States,
sitting within the Council, and managed by a specific
committee. The European Commission is responsible for the
financial implementation of the operations carried out with EDF
resources and the European Investment Bank (EIB) manages the
Investment Facility.
During the period 2008-2013, the geographic aid
granted to ACP States and OCTs will continue to be mainly funded by
the EDF. Each EDF is usually concluded for a period of around five
years. Since the conclusion of the first partnership convention in
1964, the EDF programming cycles have generally followed the
partnership agreement/convention cycles. Each EDF is governed by
its own Financial Regulation, which imposes the preparation of
financial statements for each individual EDF. Accordingly,
financial statements are prepared separately for each EDF in
respect of the part that is managed by the European Commission.
These financial statements are also presented in an aggregated way
so as to provide a global view of the financial situation of the
resources for which the European Commission is
responsible.
Within the framework of the ACP-EU Partnership
Agreement, the Investment Facility was established. This Investment
Facility is managed by the EIB and is used to support private
sector development in the ACP States by financing essentially
but not exclusively private investments. The Facility
is designed as a renewable fund, so that loan repayments can be
reinvested in other operations, thus resulting in a self-renewing
and financially independent Facility. As the Investment Facility is
not managed by the Commission, it is not consolidated in the first
part of the annual accounts the financial statements of the
8th, 9th and 10th EDFs and the related report on financial
implementation.
How is the EDF funded:
unlike the EU, the EDF is a fund operating on the basis of
multiannuality. Each EDF establishes an overall fund to
implement development cooperation during a period of usually
five years. The EDF resources are ad hoc
contributions from the EU Member States. Approximately every five
years, Member State representatives meet at intergovernmental level
to decide on an overall amount that will be allocated to the fund
and to oversee its implementation. The Commission then manages the
fund. Since Member States have their own development and aid
policies in parallel to the Union policy, the Member States must
coordinate their policies with the EU to ensure they are
complementary.
Discharge procedure: the
EDF annual accounts and resource management are overseen by its
external auditor, the ECA, which draws up an annual report for the
European Parliament and the Council. The final control is the
discharge of the financial implementation of the EDF resources for
a given financial year. The European Parliament is the discharge
authority of the EDF. This means that following the audit and
finalisation of the annual accounts it falls to the Council to
recommend and then to the Parliament to decide whether to grant
discharge to the Commission for the financial implementation of the
EDF resources for the preceding financial year. This decision
is based on a review of the accounts and the annual report of the
ECA (which includes an official statement of assurance) and replies
of the Commission, and also following questions and further
information requests to the Commission.
2. Financial implementation of the EDF in
2013: the report concentrates on the
implementation of the EDFs (including previous EDFs).
Previous EDFs
- as the 6th EDF was closed in 2006 and the 7th EDF was
closed in 2008, the annual accounts no longer contain
implementation tables for these EDFs. However, implementation of
the transferred balances can be found in the 9th EDF;
- as in past years, to ensure transparency in the
presentation of the accounts for 2013, the tables set out
separately for the 8th EDF the part used for Lomé Convention
programming and the part used for programming under the Cotonou
Agreement;
- in accordance with article 1(2)(b) of the Internal
Agreement of the 9th EDF, balances of the EDFs previous to the 9th
EDF have been transferred to the 9th EDF, and, during the life of
the 9th EDF, has been committed as 9th funds.
10th EDF
The ACP-EC Partnership Agreement signed on 23 June
2000 in Cotonou by the Member States of the European Community and
the States of Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific (ACP States)
entered into force on 1 April 2003. The Cotonou Agreement was
amended twice, firstly by the agreement signed in Luxembourg on 25
June 2005, secondly by the agreement signed in Ouagadougou on 22
June 2010.
The Internal Agreement on the financing of Community
aid under the multiannual financial framework for the period
2008-2013 in accordance with the revised Cotonou Agreement, adopted
by the Representatives of the Governments of the Member States of
the European Community on 17 July 2006, entered into force on 1
July 2008.
Under the Cotonou Agreement, the second period
(2008-2013) of Community aid to the ACP States and OCTs is funded
by the 10th EDF to the tune of EUR 22.682 billion, of
which:
- EUR 21.966 billion is allocated to the ACP countries
in accordance with the multiannual financial framework set out in
Annex Ib to the revised Cotonou Agreement, of which EUR 20.466
billion is managed by the Commission;
- EUR 286 million is allocated to the OCTs in accordance
with Annex IIAa of the revised Council Decision on the association
of the OCTs with the European Community, of which EUR 256 million
is managed by the Commission;
- EUR 430 million is for the Commission to finance the
costs arising from the programming and implementation of 10th EDF
resources, in accordance with Article 6 of the Internal
Agreement.
Since the date of entry into force of the 10th EDF,
the initial amount allocated to the 10th EDF has been supplemented
by decommitments from previous EDF's, interest income and unused
cash balances resulting from the system to guarantee the
stabilisation of export earnings from primary agricultural products
(STABEX) under the Funds prior to the 9th EDF. All funds are
managed in accordance with their specific rules as foreseen in the
revised Cotonou Agreement and the Internal Agreement.
31 December 2013 was an important target, the
"Sunset clause" of the 10th EDF. This clause sets a clear
cut-off date for commitments under the 10th EDF. During the whole
year, every effort has been made in order to commit the maximum of
the funds available from the 10th EDF.
Total 10th EDF uncommitted funds at 31.12.2013
amounted to EUR 74.6 million.
Called Fund capital and EDF
allocations: the document includes a
consolidated overview of EDF allocations at 31.12.2013 in the form
of called capital.
Called fund capital at 31.12.2013 amounted to EUR
32.529 billion.
The called fund capital represents the amount of the
initial allocations which has been called up for transfer to the
treasury accounts by the Member States for the 10th EDF. The
capital of the 8th and the 9th EDF has been called up and received
in its entirety.
Funding of the EDF at 31 December 2013:
- 8th EDF: EUR 10.481 billion;
- 9th EDF: EUR 16.114 billion;
- 10th EDF: EUR 22.433 billion.
Total allocations EUR 49.028 billion.
The report sets out a series of tables showing how
these resources were used during the financial year 2013, (by
project, country and type of action).