Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/1999-11-18-Speech-4-055"
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"en.19991118.4.4-055"2
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"Mr President, the overwhelming majority of my group is fully in support of this report which we consider to be one of the essential building blocks in restoring the credibility of the European Union in questions of how it investigates and deals with allegations of fraud; if it does nothing else it will perhaps prove that many such allegations are often, but not always alas, unfounded. This report applies within Parliament a text that was agreed by the last Parliament, was approved in principle in plenary when we authorised our President to sign it, signed by all the institutions and now applies within each of them except, until today, within Parliament.
In Parliament it met with unanimous support in the Committee on Constitutional Affairs the first time it was discussed and the first time we debated it here, every single one of the major political groups said that it supported the proposal. At the last minute there were some difficulties and the matter was reconsidered in the Committee on Constitutional Affairs, but I believe that the difficulties and concerns that were raised have been adequately dealt with. May I remind you that the provisions which would apply to Members of the Parliament are, to quote the text itself, "without prejudice to the provisions of the Treaties and in particular the Protocol on Privileges and Immunities". There is a specific reference also in the preamble to the Protocol on Privileges and Immunities and there is a reference to the fact that the relevant article is without prejudice to the confidentiality requirements that may be laid down for Members of the European Parliament.
Our position as Members of the European Parliament is safeguarded in this respect, and Members who had genuine fears that this would be some sort of snoopers' charter or some sort of a new right given to officials to report confidentially on MEPs with wild allegations can rest assured that this is not the case. The reports would go to OLAF, be properly investigated and would protect the position of MEPs. If we failed to approve this today, we would be in the untenable situation that only MEPs would be above the law in this respect: a text that applies within the Council to politicians and officials alike, in the Commission to politicians and officials alike, would apply in Parliament only to our officials and not to Members of the European Parliament. That would be totally unacceptable and would destroy the credibility of this Parliament. It is essential that this report be adopted today."@en1
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