De uitvoering van Europese subsidieregelingen in Nederland: Juridische knelpunten en uitdagingen

If only because of the notices to be found everywhere in Europe saying ‘This project is being partially funded by …’, followed by the European fund in question, every EU citizen knows about the subsidies financed with European money. These subsidies are not only provided to achieve the EU policy goals, but also to make the EU more visible to the EU citizen. The European subsidies are not undisputed. The European Court of Auditors for instance refuses year after year to provide an unqualified audit opinion as regards the legitimacy of the subsidies spent by the Member States. Mistakes are discovered in such large numbers that the European Court of Auditors does not dare to warrant the legitimacy of these subsidies financed from the EU budget. Also in the Netherlands problems occur in the implementation of the European subsidy schemes. More than once the European Commission has recovered money already paid to the Netherlands. These Dutch problems were the reason for the research which is the subject of the present book. It has been investigated which legal problems exist when Dutch implementing bodies implement European subsidy schemes and to what extent the European and/or national (subsidy) law should be adjusted to resolve these problems.