Emergency assistance for eurozone countries during the crisis
| Audit Id | 1452872066311 |
|---|---|
| Título | Emergency assistance for eurozone countries during the crisis |
| Tí tulo en el idioma original |
Noodsteun voor eurolanden tijdens de crisis Dutch |
| Año | 2015 |
| Asunto |
EU Funds Financial Institutions and Markets Government Operations (Budget and Spending) International Affairs |
| Tipo |
Compliance/Legality Financial Performance |
| Tipo de acción |
Performed by single SAI |
| Descripción | During the Euro crisis, the EU established emergency funds and assistance programmes for countries in financial difficulties. This involves several billion euros. We have examined the emergency support for Greece, Ireland and Spain. How were these emergency funds established? What is the money used for? When will it be repaid? Is there democratic control of this money? Is there independent monitoring of the expenditure and the results? Our research has revealed a number of issues: There is little insight into exactly where the money lent by the European emergency funds ends up. There are no independent European evaluations carried out into the effectiveness of the emergency support for eurozone countries in financial distress. Only the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has undertaken a number of ex-post evaluations. There is a gap in the democratic control and accountability of the ‘Eurogroup’ (the finance ministers of the eurozone countries), the main decision-maker in relation to the European emergency funds,. There is a lack of independent external control on most of the money from the emergency funds that has already been spent. It is clear that when the European assistance programmes and the associated emergency funds were created there was no time to arrange the finer details of control and accountability. Indeed, the emergency funds were set up under severe time pressure in 2010. Haste was necessary due to the rapidly declining confidence in the financial markets of eurozone countries such as Greece, Italy and Ireland. The design of the assistance programmes for Greece and Ireland shows traces of this time pressure. Meanwhile, however, a certain degree of calm has returned to the financial markets. It is now time to fix the apparent gaps in the required - from a democratic perspective - transparency and accountability. |
| Autor |
The Netherlands |
| Materiales |
Audit report English Audit report Dutch Summary English Summary Dutch |
| Contacto |
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