Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/1999-09-13-Speech-1-043"
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"en.19990913.5.1-043"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, we have impatiently awaited the second report from the Wise Men and I cannot conceal the fact that I would have preferred to have had it before the hearings of the Commission candidates were held rather than afterwards. But we do now have it and it was announced that it would not be a continuation of the first report and would therefore not contain any new revelations. Rather the report is providing us with a yardstick for the reform of the European Commission, which the future President, Romano Prodi, has announced, and which has just been confirmed again in some detail by Mr Kinnock.
The report also makes it clear how necessary a far-reaching wholesale reorganisation and rearrangement is and that it is not enough to carry out only selective modifications.
Even where the subject of this second draft of the Wise Men talks in somewhat theoretical terms of “cultural practices and Commission procedures”, the question of the improved utilisation, supervision and thereby protection of Community finances runs like a red thread through the thoroughly analysed areas. Recommendations are included, which Parliament, for the most part, has already stipulated as requirements for the previous Commission. Will they now be adhered to? Mr Kinnock, we will have to take you at your word.
I am thinking in this regard of the question of the Financial Regulation and its adaptation, efficient controls, independence of financial control, the significance of discharge and, above all, the question of clear definitions of tasks and responsibility for the individual departments, officials and Commissioners. A clear reference to ethical responsibility will be a pointer to a new culture that does not just stop at the Secretary-General, the Cabinets and the Commissioners.
If the Code of Conduct for the Commission is described as being insufficient and the Wise Men call for a stricter code for the administration, if the disciplinary process is reformed and sanctions brought about, then in this way our demands will also be taken up, the fulfilment of which we will have to keep an eye on.
As far as the complex matter of combating fraud is concerned, the call of the five Wise Men for a European Prosecution Office raised eyebrows and rightly so. The significance of this point is not impaired by the fact that the Wise Men were not the first to call for this. I am casting my mind back to the reports of my colleagues, Fabra Vallés and Bösch, as well as my own report concerning criminal prosecution to protect the financial interests of the Union. This key question must be resolved if we want to successfully defend ourselves against fraud and corruption, which is to the detriment of European contributors.
The goal, which the Wise Men have set, the creation of a European Prosecution Office within a year, is ambitious, yet it is completely feasible if the will is there. With close cooperation between Parliament, the Council and the Commission, within three months we have succeeded in establishing the new, independent anti-fraud office OLAF. Now the next step must be taken. Here as well, the new Commission will have to be measured in terms of their willingness for reform, as demanded by the public and Parliament.
Although the reports of the five Wise Men have been regarded as being helpful, in future Parliament should again assume responsibility for supervisory functions and not pass this responsibility on to outside parties. We do want a strong Commission but we also want a strong Parliament.
In any case, the second report of the Wise Men still has to be prepared for the plenum by the competent committee, and for this we require all the documentation and information which the Wise Men had access to. On this matter I would like to put another question to Mr Kinnock, a question which was not answered in the hearings: will the Committee on Budgetary Control also have access to the same documentation and information made available to the Wise Men? I believe that we can then work together towards a sound future for the European Union."@en1
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