Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-01-18-Speech-2-298"
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"en.20000118.10.2-298"2
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"Mr President, this report is positive but, actually, we need more than this. Fraud, mismanagement and nepotism do not come from nowhere. They are most likely to occur if there is little democratic control on cash flow. Via the structural funds, a great deal of the European budget is being pumped around the system. This is only useful as long as there is a sense of solidarity where rich Member States contribute to both the revenue and development of poorer Member States. But there is also funding which is being pumped via Brussels back to the same rich Member States. Districts and regional authorities consider this as their own money but they can only get their hands on this by investing vast amounts of money and manpower in lobbying and negotiating.
After each incident of improper use of this money, and certainly after fraud, the call for stricter control is more pronounced. Even the strictest control cannot solve this problem. It will, at best, lead to more bureaucracy and less room for local democracy and for people to get involved in choosing and developing projects. It would be preferable if national governments channelled this money directly to their local governments without a European detour.
In the next couple of years, we will need to think about the possibility of replacing structural funds by an equalisation fund which is limited to budgetary aid for Member States or their constituent regions with a low income per capita of the population. This is probably the only way to achieve less fraud, less overheads, more transparency and more democracy."@en1
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