ECA finds 'significant weaknesses' at EU advisory body

A European Union (EU) initiative managed by the Luxembourg-based European Investment Bank (EIB) "suffers from significant weaknesses".

That's according to a report from the European Court of Auditors (ECA), also based in Luxembourg.

JASPERS – the Joint Assistance to Support Projects in European Regions – was established in 2006 with the aim of accelerating the disbursment of €350 billion in EU structural and investment funds.

It does so by giving independent, free-of-charge advice to authorities and promoters so projects are "planned, prepared, procured and run to the highest technical, social and environmental standards possible", according to its website.

"JASPERS did not target its assistance sufficiently, which led to a high number of cancelled and suspended assignments," Oskar Herics, the ECA member responsible for the report, said in a statement.

"While it was conceived for the 2007 to 2013 period and then extended, it has no clear measurable objectives to show its purpose has been achieved."

The ECA report covered the period from 2006 to 2016, and auditors visited Croatia, Malta, Poland and Romania.

The ECA noted that the same person at JASPERS was responsible for signing off both its quality reviews and advisory work, which "detracted from the independence" of the reviews and created "a high risk of a lack of impartiality" in relation to JASPERS's advisory functions, the ECA said.

The court recommended the European Commission take more control of JASPERS's strategic planning, mitigate the risk of impartiality and be fully able to verify the quality of the organisation's independent review proceedures.

Among other things, it called on the Commission to integrate JASPERS's activities into its own tehnical assistance strategy, introduce comprehensive monitoring and evaluation and ensure JASPERS's costs are "reasonable and reflect the actual costs incurred".

JASPERS is jointly financed by the EIB, European Commission and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.