Rumiana Jeleva, Bulgarian MEP, became member of the internal working group of the EPP-ED fraction in the EP Committee on Regional Development which will closely monitor the control over the Structural Funds spending. "We are going to focus on the possible reasons leading to inadequate spending of the Euromoney, starting from the tender procedures and overseeing also the effectiveness of audit authorities within the Member States", Jeleva commented.

MEPs will follow closely the role and functioning of the national systems for monitoring and control as well as the audit activity of the European Commission. "In this way we are going to rely on continuous information on irregularities concerning the use of Structural Funds in EU states", the Bulgarian MEP commented. "On the other hand, we hope that the availability of such information will enable all members of the Committee to participate in the processes of prevention of misuse", Jeleva also said. In the process of work the Group will rely on documents and data from the European Commission and reports by the European Chamber of Accounts. It also intends to organize debates with external and national experts from the Permanent Representations to the EU of the 27 Member States.

According to the last report of the European Chamber of Accounts concerning the financial year 2006 "at least 12 % of the resources granted under Structural Funds should not have been paid". The European Parliament's position is that the European Commission must take all measures necessary to avoid such results in the future. As a consequence, in February, the European Commissioners on Regional Development and on Social Affairs - Danuta Hübner and Vladimir Spidla, introduced a new Action Plan including 37 specific measures aimed at decreasing the irregular/unauthorized payments under the Structural Funds in Member States. According to the plan the Commission is going to closely monitor fund spending and report on the results before the EP every three months.