In recent years, the European Court of Auditors has concluded that the areas of cohesion and rural development are the most error-prone in the EU budget. This comes as no surprise: The two policies have complementary objectives and are delivered through instruments with similar management and control systems. The management of spending is shared between the Commission and the Member States and is channelled through a multiannual internal control system. A key component of multiannual spending schemes is the final validation of expenditure by the Commission: In practice this is done through the closure of cohesion and rural development (Operational) Programmes (OPs). The European Court of Auditors has repeatedly highlighted the risk that closure will not ensure that expenditure finally charged to the EU budget is regular. This article provides a brief description of the internal control arrangements and looks in particular at the similarities and differences between the closure systems applied in the two policy areas. It also presents audit results for the 2000-2006 closure process and a list of potential challenges and risks linked to the closure of the 2007-2013 period in both areas.