Draw on the ongoing work within the Bologna Process in higher education with a view to exploiting the potential of quality assurance to enhance mutual trust and transparency as a basis for moving towards the smoother recognition of all relevant qualifications.

- the Court of Auditors and the national audit authorities should seek to simplify, in an appropriate manner, the rules on the management of EU funds and to ensure the proportionality of the costs of internal management controls on EU funds spent and/or the benefit obtained therefrom;

5. Welcomes the observations provided by ECA in its Special Report No 4/2011 on the SME Guarantee facility; calls on the European Investment Fund, which manages the facility on behalf of the Commission, to implement the ECA’s recommendations as soon as possible; notes the observations of the ECA published in its Special Report 4/2011 on the audit of the SMEG facility with regard to the scarcity of factual evidence presented in the impact assessment in support of the facility, the unclear objectives of the scheme, the lack of specific targets and the cases where beneficiaries could have obtained loans ...[+++] on the market without publicly supported guarantees; welcomes, at the same time, the achievements identified in the Special Report 4/2011, including the establishment of an appropriate management framework as well as a well-designed framework for selection of beneficiaries, and the introduction of clear and reasonable reporting requirements that do not impose an excessive burden on SMEs;

13. Calls on the Commission to support Member States in enhancing the transparency of the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS) so that it can be used as a comparative tool to facilitate the recognition of professional qualifications, and argues that a more skills-based approach could facilitate better comparisons across different sectors; asks the relevant stakeholders to consider the possibility of incorporating periods of training completed as part of higher education in the ECTS;

333. Regrets that neither the Courts‘ report nor EPSO sufficiently analyses the process of recruitment of middle and higher-management personnel, and in particular the geographical imbalances in this field; suggests that in its next special report (or follow-up report) the Court should analyse this issue;

331. Regrets that neither the Courts' report nor EPSO sufficiently analyses the process of recruitment of middle and higher-management personnel, and in particular the geographical imbalances in this field; suggests that in its next special report (or follow-up report) the Court should analyse this issue;