The Ombudsman's investigation revealed that the Commission was aware of the fact (a) that the contents of the draft final report were potentially controversial, (b) that the relevant national Ministry wished to exercise editorial control over the final report before it was published, (c) that the final report was handed in more than a year after the Commission had approved the draft final report and (d) that this final report contained substantial changes as compared to the draft final report.

[2] PHARE Report - COM(2003) 497 final; ISPA Report - COM(2003) 655 final; SAPARD Report - COM(2003) 582 final.

2. The content of the Report has been drawn from a number of sources, notably: the independent evaluation undertaken by ECOTEC Research and Consulting Limited, who were appointed after an open Call for Tender [3] and whose report was submitted to the European Commission in September 2002 [4]; national evaluation reports (where available) and the evaluation report produced by the Council of Europe; policy documents produced by national and regional authorities and by NGOs published during, or as a result of, the Year; the final report submitted by ...[+++] EurOM, who were appointed to supply communications and production services after an open invitation to tender [5] and the final reports of co-financed projects.

[15] The Commission has drawn up the following reports: - 1996 Report: XIX/24329/98 of 27.5.1998 - 1997 Report: COM(1999) 110 final of 12.3.1999 - 1998 Report: COM(2000) 107 final of 29.2.2000

After 9 months the Forum presented its final report - the maritime industries's report. This report was welcomed at the last maritime Forum's meeting in Genoa, on the 28 and 29 November 1992.

The Commission accordingly proposes that: - the role of its communication to the Ecofin Council meeting in March should be left unchanged; - the content of the communication to the Ecofin Council meeting in July should be developed; the communication will list the measures taken by the Member States pursuant to the guidelines contained in the most recent Annual Economic Report; on the basis of the new forecasts for the current year and for the following year, the communication will reassess the short-term and, if necessary, the medium-term outlook and will set out the Commission's views on the economic and budgetary policy guidelines ...[+++]to be applied in the year ahead; the communication will be transmitted to Parliament and the Economic and Social Committee; the social partners will be consulted by the Commission; in addition, the Commission requests the Council to ask the governments of the Member States to pass on the communication and any conclusions drawn by the Council to the national parliaments, in accordance with the spirit of Article 5 of the Decision on convergence, so that they can be discussed in the autumn debates on economic and budgetary policy at national level; - the procedure for drawing up and approving the Annual Economic Report should remain unchanged; the Report could certainly be reduced in length, but it would continue to be the Community's main economic policy reference document; the Commission considers it important that the final adoption of the Report should take place after the Council has discussed it in the light of the various opinions delivered; accordingly, there should be better coordination of the dates of the November and December meetings of Parliament and the Ecofin Council.