Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-01-18-Speech-2-061"
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"en.20000118.3.2-061"2
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"Mr President, this, as Mrs Theato said, is a critical report. It is a report that has been proposed by the Committee on Budgetary Control and it is an own-initiative report. One of the reasons why we were very keen to bring this forward was because, whether we like it or not, the European Union has a reputation for fraud and mismanagement. It is sometimes exaggerated but there it is. We need to do something about it.
Some of the measures we have put in place in the past have not been honoured by some of the Member States – and let us not forget that the Member States are responsible for implementing about 80% of the EU budget. A lot of them have not signed up to or not ratified the Convention on the Protection of Financial Interests, and therefore it was clear that something more radical needed to be done.
We need to take this responsibility seriously. We need to be able to prosecute people who commit fraud against the European Union. The question is: who prosecutes? That is where we really get into difficulty. Whose responsibility is it when you are dealing with a body that crosses so many frontiers?
We need also to be sensitive to the concerns of Member States. The proposal to set up a European public prosecutor service is a very sensitive one. We are all aware that an all-out federal approach and a situation where a European judicial authority takes precedence over the national judicial authorities is a step too far for some people. But the discussion needs to begin and we are therefore calling on the IGC to start discussions.
Of most importance to Parliament, as the guardian of the budget of the European Union, is how to deal with people who work within the European Union institutions. At a time when we are looking at the whole reform process it is critical that we send the right signal. People need to understand that if they commit fraud they will be prosecuted, and that is not the case at the moment. The whole question as to whether we have the legal authority to do this has been outlined by Mrs Palacio.
I should like to make clear that my group is going to propose an amendment deleting the detail of how the Commission should tackle this question. We are aware that it is a delicate debate. We know that the Commission may perhaps need the scope to negotiate a situation which would be acceptable to all parties. Can I just make it clear that we have no commitment to a
here, no commitment to a federal European public prosecutor. But there is a definite commitment to change the status quo which is totally unacceptable."@en1
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