Since 2004, Poland has been a Member State of the European Union. Before entering the Community, the country went through a long integration process. Already in 2003, the NIK started verifying how the process was progressing. It was then when issues related to the integration with the EU were recognised as an audit priority for the first time. The NIK checked, among other things, to what extent the Polish law and Polish institutions were adjusted to EU standards and how resources designated for implementation of assistance programmes and accession processes were used. Since then, audits related to EU matters have become an inseparable element of the NIK’s annual work plans. When in 2008 the Council of the NIK adopted new audit priorities for 2009-2011, it was obvious that issues related to Poland’s membership in the European Union could not be ignored.
While entering the EU, Poland undertaken numerous commitments towards the Community. One of them was to provide legal, technical and organisational conditions for introducing one European emergency telephone number 112. The NIK decided to conduct an audit aimed at checking how the state progressed with the matter. The audit revealed that Poland for six years had not been able to launch the system for servicing number 112. Despite substantial assistance funds allocated for this purpose, it is still provisional and ineffective.
The NIK has also verified how Poland progresses with the implementation of the Common Agricultural Policy. Organic farming has also been scrutinised by NIK auditors. Over four years (between 1 July 2005 and 30 June 2009), the EU designated over PLN 609 million for this purpose. Additional PLN 42 million were spent from the state budget. At present, Poland is on the seventh place with regard to the number of organic farms in the European Union. Their products are of high quality and comply with the requirements set for organic food. However, the report developed after the audit revealed several irregularities, such as imprecise regulations on organic farming and incompliance with formal rules for organic produce (in 40 percent of the audited farms).
On the basis of the results of 70 audits on EU-related issues conducted by the NIK in the years 2004 - 2008, an overall report was elaborated, presenting how Poland used assistance funds from the EU budget. From the perspective of that period, Poland was at the EU average.
The NIK will continue with audits conducted within the Poland in the European Union audit priority. In December, the Council of the NIK will adopt a work plan for the next year. Then, we will know concrete areas on which the NIK’s audits will focus within this priority.
