The European Court of Auditors’ special report “Financial assistance provided to countries in difficulties” criticizes the European Commission’s crisis management and suggests the following:

• The Commission should establish an institution-wide framework allowing the rapid mobilization of the Commission’s staff and expertise if a financial assistance programme emerges. The Commission should also develop procedures in the context of the ‘two-pack’ regulations.
• The forecasting process should be subject to more systematic quality control.
• To ensure the factors underlying programme decisions are internally transparent, the Commission should enhance record-keeping and pay attention to it during quality reviews.
• The Commission should ensure that proper procedures are in place for the quality review of programme management and of the content of programme documents.
• For budget monitoring purposes, the Commission should include, in memoranda of understanding, variables that it can collect with short time lags.
• The Commission should distinguish conditions by importance and target the truly important reforms.
• For any future programmes, the Commission should attempt to formalize interinstitutional cooperation with other programme partners.
• The debt management process should be more transparent.
• The Commission should further analyse the key aspects of the countries’ adjustment.