Mr. Svetlen Tanchev – Chairman of the Committee on European Affairs and Oversight of the European Funds and Mr. Delyan Dobrev – Member of the Budget and Finance Committee participated in the Inter-parliamentary Conference on Improving National Accountability of EU Funds. The conference was held in The Hague (Netherlands) on 28 and 29 January 2010, hosted by the Public Expenditure Committee together with the Committee on European Affairs of the House of Representatives, in cooperation with the Committee on Finance of the Senate.

The role of the EU Member States and more specifically the role of the National Parliaments in controlling EU spending and the accountability of EU funds have been discussed during the Conference. With the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty, putting a significant emphasis on the role of the Member States, new challenges and opportunities to influence the European policy process have arisen for the National Parliaments. In this respect, the Inter-parliamentary Conference was aimed at marking the necessary steps for the future improvement in the national accountability of EU funds.

Delegations from representatives of the relevant National Parliamentary Committees in the EU Member States dealing with the issue took part in the Conference, together with representatives of the European Parliament, the European Court of Auditors, the European Commission and others. Their position on the issue as official guests shared during the Conference the Chairman of the Committee on Budgetary Control of the European Parliament – Mr. Luigi de Magistris, the Member of the European Court of Auditors – Professor Josef Bonnici, the Vice-President of the Netherlands Court of Audit – Mr. Gijs de Vries and others.