Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/1999-10-26-Speech-2-017"
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"en.19991026.2.2-017"2
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". – Mr President, I would like to thank the Budget Committee and Mr Bourlanges for their work. I am grateful to the commitment that they have shown in the fight against fraud in the European Union and, in particular, with the extra commitment they have made – an extra EUR 9 million has been voted by the Budget Committee for OLAF. This will allow for the creation of an extra 50 to 75 new posts in the year 2000 on top of the 30 new posts voted for in the supplementary and amending budgets.
I should remind you that OLAF needs 300 posts to carry out its duties. This was endorsed by the report of the Committee of Independent Experts. Let us not forget that there are raised expectations in terms of the public’s attitude towards reform of the European institutions. It is essential that OLAF is given the appropriate resources. I should like to remind the Commission that we will not allow OLAF’s independence to be compromised by budgetary gains – a little note there for the future. I am disappointed that the Council Presidency has not referred to this. Are you committed to the extra 75 posts or not? I would be grateful for some kind of feedback on that. You need to show the same commitment to fighting fraud as we are within the European Parliament.
Another issue for the Budgetary Control Committee is the use of technical assistance agencies. In its budget guidelines for the year 2000, Parliament called for the phasing out of the agencies. And for the Commission to provide it with an assessment of its staffing needs. That has not been done. The Budget Committee has entered expenditure on logistical support and technical assistance in a separate section, with 90% of those appropriations in reserve. The Budgetary Control Committee would support this approach. It is absolutely right that those appropriations should not be released until the Commission has defined those categories of tasks that need to be outsourced. We look forward to receiving that information from the Commission.
On another matter, in 1999 there have been large under-spends in the Community initiatives, the cohesion fund and many other areas. In some cases this is the second or third consecutive year when there has been a large transfer away from particular lines. This demonstrates the need for Parliament to monitor budget implementation more closely throughout the year. The subject committees must take more responsibility for monitoring the budget lines within those areas. If we do that then we can feed that into the budgetary process and make sure that we are more on track during the course of the year."@en1
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