Nieuwe onderdirecteur-generaal van DG Begroting (en)

Today the European Commission appointed Mr Philippe Taverne as Deputy Director-General of the Directorate-General for Budget. In this capacity, he is also Chief Accounting Officer of the European Commission. The Deputy Director-General will be responsible for establishing the annual accounts of the EU institutions, and for coordinating relations with the European Court of Auditors and the European Parliament's Committee on Budgetary Control.

In his new role, Mr Taverne is responsible for organising the Commission's work relating to the budgetary discharge procedure. As Chief Accounting Officer he also supervises preparation of the Commission's accounts and the consolidated financial statements of all EU institutions and agencies. His responsibilities include overseeing the improvement of the Commission's reporting and management information systems.

The Budget DG ensures the Commission gets the resources it needs in order to carry out European Union policy. The Budget DG manages the regulatory framework for the budget, promotes sound financial management across the Commission, and reports on budget implementation and on progress towards a positive declaration of assurance by the Court of Auditors.

Philippe Taverne, a 56-year-old Belgian, is currently Director of the Central Financial Service in the Budget DG. In this capacity, he supervised the establishment of the Commission's internal control framework and the work that resulted in the recent communication on the concept of "tolerable risk of error". Since joining the Commission in 1983, he has held a variety of posts with a particular focus on budget policy and management, including a ten-year stint at the Personnel and Administration DG. Prior to joining the Commission, Mr Taverne was an auditor, a consultant and spent three years in Nigeria as a company financial controller.

Mr Taverne holds a master's degree from the Solvay Business School, Brussels. He will take up his new duties on 1 June 2009.

See Mr Taverne's CV on the Europa site:

http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/budget/org_chart/cv/p_taverne_en.htm