Funds unspent by EU reached €31 billion in 2014

Had EU funds been managed under provisions that are devolved fully to national government, the absorption rate would have been much higher, Labour MEP Alfred Sant told the European Parliament.

Over €31 billion funds by the EU remained unspent in 2014. The former Maltese prime minister said it was "strange" to once again find billions of investments allocations under the EU’s own budget unspent from one year to the next.

"We're looking at over €31 billion euros which have not been spent on the Structural Funds, on the Cohesion Fund,on  the Agricultural Fund, on the Migraton Fund," Sant said.

Sant said the EU is not a federal system, but the procedures it followed in funding projects are more onerous that those followed in the US: "We proclaim that more new investment is a paramount requirement if a European economic recovery is to be sustained. So it is strange to still find that so many billions of investment allocations under the EU's own budget have again remained unspent from last year to this one.

Methods defining the management of cofunded projects are too frequently retarding project implementation. Too often, they are applied on a one size fits all basis. Of course, the problem has been with the Union since its inception."

The MEP said  that one would have hoped that by now, following the last years of economic crisis, efficient solutions to the challenge of spending allocated monies in time would have been discovered.

"The contrary seems to have happened. For instance, the impression is that state aid rules are being applied too stringently to project proposals. Projects delayed or reformatted mean more costs, less economic impact. Here too, the road to hell is paved with good intentions," he said.