Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-04-11-Speech-2-059"
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"en.20000411.3.2-059"2
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"Mr President, this is a useful and very necessary procedure. One problem that I have about it is that there is a natural tendency to concentrate much more on the 4% of the budget that might have been lost, or the 2% that probably was lost, than the 98% of the budget that was properly spent. It is necessary to acknowledge that 98% was properly spent. It is also important to try to correct the situation where things have gone wrong, but in so doing not to exaggerate it in such a way as to create in the European public's mind an image of a European Union that is out of control, that is a sea of corruption and cannot be trusted with taxpayers' money.
There is fraud at every level of government at which I have served – local, national and European and regional. It is always there, but local and national bodies can stand up to criticism better perhaps than this younger institution of the European Union, which is less accepted. While it is important to put things right and to give people confidence, nevertheless it does not help their confidence if we exaggerate the extent to which abuses occur and money is lost.
I thank Mrs Stauner for her report. Some people have criticised it for being a bit too severe. Mrs Stauner is new to the Budget Control Committee, but her statement is a real reflection of the mood and the debate that went on. I do not agree with all of it, of course, but nevertheless it was agreed by a majority. I would not entirely accept the explanatory statement. It is Mrs Stauner's own explanation but it is the motion for resolution that we the Parliament have to decide on.
Another point that I would like to make is that in seeking to bring everybody into accountability, whether they be officials or Members of the Commission, we ought, like Mr Deprez said, to avoid this vendetta between institutions. We ought avoid particularly vendettas between an institution and individual commissioners. We should see this Commission as a college and while the individual commissioners must be held accountable, nevertheless we must take an objective view of what is going on and beware of either European party politics or international politics colouring our judgement.
The last point I will make is that we have not only an obligation to ensure that accounts are better kept and money is better accounted for. We also have an obligation to ensure that when we make regulations they are regulations which can be put into effect. Over the years, I witnessed the making of all the regulations that are creating the problems and my experience in this Parliament was that we wanted to pander to public sentiment. We never sought to ensure that our regulations were enforceable."@en1
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