Title page
Contents
Annex 1. Performance achievements in 2023 5
1. Performance of the EU budget 6
2. Priorities of the European Commission 10
3. Horizontal policy priorities in the EU budget 37
Annex 2. Internal control and financial management 60
1. Strong tools to manage the EU budget in a complex environment 61
1.1. The EU budget: a wide variety of areas, recipients and spending in a complex environment 61
1.2. A robust governance system underpinning the College's responsibility 63
1.3. A robust internal control framework contributing to the achievement of the Commission objectives 65
1.4. Multiannual control strategies to ensure that expenditure is legal and regular 68
1.5. Fight against fraud: the Commission's anti-fraud strategy and further proposals 70
1.6. The conditionality regime is being implemented 72
1.7. Revision of the financial regulation (recast) 74
2. Cost-effective controls protecting the EU budget 76
2.1. The Commission's control results confirm that the EU budget is well protected 77
3. Management assurance 96
3.1. Assessments, assurance and reservations declared by authorising officers 96
3.2. Work of the Internal Audit Service and overall opinion 97
3.3. Assurance obtained through the work of the Audit Progress Committee 98
3.4. The opinions of the European Court of Auditors on the 2022 accounts and on the legality and regularity of transactions 99
3.5. Discharge of the budget for 2022 100
Annex 3. The Recovery and Resilience Facility 101
1. The Recovery and Resilience Facility - an innovative and successful crisis-response tool 102
1.1. Future-proofing through revised plans 102
1.2. Implementation is on track 103
1.3. Achieving performance results 104
2. Control results confirm the satisfactory fulfilment of all milestones and targets for payments made in 2023 107
2.1. A dedicated control environment to ensure the protection of EU funds 107
2.2. Control results are predominantly positive 110
2.3. The authorising officer by delegation for the facility confirmed they had reasonable assurance 116