EU border fund must improve results monitoring

8 Oct 14

The European Commission’s external borders fund (EBF) needs better measurements of results, so that EU taxpayers’ money can be used more effectively, according to auditors.

By Judith Ugwumadu | 8 October 2014

The European Commission’s external borders fund (EBF) needs better measurements of results, so that EU taxpayers’ money can be used more effectively, according to auditors.

The EBF is the EU’s main way of supporting external border management, and amounts to €1.9m over the 2007/13 period.

The main aim of the fund is to help current and prospective Schengen States ensure uniform, effective and efficient controls at their common external borders.

Today, the European Court of Auditors said in a special report that the EBF needed to provide further value. It found that the EBF had ‘contributed to external border management but the overall result could not be measured’ because of weaknesses in monitoring by the responsible authorities.

Louis Galea, the ECA Member responsible for the report, said: ‘The EBF has helped Member States in their task of managing the EU’s external borders, but the Commission and Member States have to improve the fund’s operation so that EU taxpayers’ money can be used more effectively in assisting the management of our external borders while continuing to support financial solidarity.’

The EU auditors also found that Member States’ programmes were not embedded in national strategies for border control and visas, and lacked SMART objectives and measurable indicators.

Additionally, project selection procedures did not ensure that Member States’ actual needs were met, and inadequate procurement procedures in Member States put sound financial management at risk, said the auditors.

The ECA has recommends that the EC ensures all indicators to be used are relevant, measurable and where possible, paired with a target value. It also wants to make sure those indicators are collected from the start and, where not already in place, that IT systems are developed.

It also recommends that the EC provides clear guidelines to its Member States so that they have a common understanding of obligatory indicators so that aggregation for monitoring and evaluation purposes will be possible.