Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/1999-12-16-Speech-4-080"
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"en.19991216.2.4-080"2
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"In connection with the account of the Court of Auditors’ annual report, it emerged that the Court of Auditors’ current President, Jan O. Karlsson, had taken steps against the person who had supplied the mass media with information about the content of the annual report.
We Swedes have a lot to learn within the European partnership. The EU in turn has something to learn from the way we handle some things in Sweden. Openness and public access to official records are one such area. It is therefore unfortunate that, instead of upholding our traditions, Jan O. Karlsson should have chosen to adapt to what unfortunately applies in Brussels.
There may be different views as to how far it was right or wrong of an official in the EU’s Court of Auditors to reveal in advance the contents of the annual report. What is really important, however, is that we should together fight for the right to do this. We are concerned here with the freedom to supply information which the Government so often says it wants to uphold in the EU context.
It is, to say the least, worrying that the Swedish head of the EU’s Court of Auditors should choose to adapt to the worst aspects of the EU administration’s culture, namely secrecy and the desire for revenge upon employees who choose to speak out.
In the Swedish constitution and in Swedish debate, the freedom to supply information is acknowledged as an indispensable part of any effective supervision of the democratic and public system. We believe that this is important for democracy. We think there is a need for more EU employees who dare to reveal cheating and irregularities. For each time an EU official is reprimanded because of his openness, we lose ground in our work for an open EU.
Against the background of the above, we have not been able to support the re-election of those Members who are at present Members of the Court of Auditors and who obviously consider that it is perfectly correct to act in this way. We have therefore chosen to abstain from voting when it comes to appointing Giorgio Clemente, Jørgen Mohr, Aunus Salmi and Jan O. Karlsson."@en1
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