Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/1999-11-18-Speech-4-152"
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"en.19991118.7.4-152"2
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"There is indeed corruption. Both in the left wing in power and in the right wing in government. The names of the cases tell the whole story: Agusta in Belgium, Urba in France, Palermo in Italy, fictitious jobs in the Parisian public transport network – RPR, the
or Dominique Strauss-Kahn.
So, the expert body does exist, but with a connection to the representatives of the people who alone have the right to ask for explanations regarding the use of their taxes.
But, because we in the
do not suffer the anxiety affecting the potential accused in the other parties, we are rejecting the extension of police powers to that tool of the Brussels Commission that goes by the name of OLAF.
Firstly, because OLAF contravenes the idea of the separation of authority, which is the bedrock of Western democracy, with officials who have no legitimacy supervising the representatives of the sovereign states.
Secondly, because OLAF is the thief set to catch the policeman, since the European Commission, at the centre of the suspicions of corruption, is in fact, by means of OLAF, going to be supervising the Parliament, whereas it is Parliament which should be doing the supervising rather than being its target.
Finally, OLAF does not attack the causes of corruption, which lie in the removal of national borders allowing freedom of movement for drugs money, fraud and financial crime.
If we really wish to fight the simple symptoms of corruption, while respecting the foundations of legitimate societies, then there are just two ways:
either the technical route, by transforming the European Court of Auditors into a court of law and a court of budgetary discipline;
or the democratic route, by creating a body at the heart of the European Union, as in Great Britain and the United States, which is the equivalent of the British “National Accounting Office” (NAO) or the American “General Accounting Office” (GAO).
The latter are powerful autonomous supervisory bodies, but are located at the heart of the parliaments, and have a staff of up to 5,000."@en1
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