“This is a lot of EU money, and when this fund was made available, it was agreed between European countries that, in exchange for receiving money, arrangements should be made to deal with urgent problems,” says Blok. He mentions, among other things, the energy dependence, but also the big difference in economic growth between European countries.
Blok also believes that various levels of government debt need to be critically examined. “A topic that comes up in every financial crisis,” he says. “Every country has had to come up with plans for it, and there are a lot of positives.” Based on the implementation of these plans, the European Commission makes payments to the countries. ‘And we say that unfortunately we often have to conclude that it’s not well defined what steps need to be taken to receive payment.’
Measurability
Blok would prefer goals to be measurable. “Take our share of sustainable energy, for example, which is up from six to eight percent,” says Blok. ‘And we want to achieve this in 2025. Because then the European Commission – but also the taxpayer – can see whether butter is added to the fish. Unfortunately, in a number of cases we see that it is not so clearly stated, and we also see that there are persistent problems for a number of countries.’
An interesting detail: the European Commission has reported these problems many times before. Blok: ‘Think, for example, of the pension system, or too much tax evasion in the countries. They’re not part of those deals yet, and this is a missed opportunity.’
Abuse
Although he refrains from commenting on individual countries, he points out that the European Court of Auditors only monitors European spending. ‘We also go to the countries to see how it is introduced there, but the European Commission makes the deals with the countries. And again, we see good deals in many places, but too often not good enough. (…) It affects many different countries.’