Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-05-16-Speech-2-045"
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"en.20000516.4.2-045"2
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"Mr President, in the time available, I wish on behalf of the Economic Committee to stress three issues that we considered to be of cardinal importance when we examined the annual report on the Community's financial interests and the fight against fraud.
First was the issue of definition. It is the case that the Commission have come under a significant amount of attention in recent years from Parliament and from the European public at large who want the Commission to deal with allegations of fraud, but it is also important that we should know what we are talking about when we define fraud. The annual report itself indicates that for the first time there has been an attempt made to try to assess what amounts to fraud and what is general irregularity, and I am of the view that it does not help the reputation of our European institutions if we are lax with definition. It is important that the work being undertaken by the Commission should be expanded because, in a situation in which 20% of irregularity amounts to fraud, the fact of the matter is that by referring to it as fraud and irregularity, European citizens can often be left with an impression that all of the claims are fraudulent ones.
The second point that I want to make is about the commitment of Member States to deal with fraud. The fact of the matter is that Member States have a high responsibility here. They are responsible for administering some 80% of the EU's budget and they must recognise that they are, at the very least, partners if not prime movers in attempting to address this important issue, and the report indicates that the performance of Member States has been mixed to say the least.
My final point concerns the accession countries. We must demand that the accession countries also endeavour to work in conjunction with the European Union and to the highest standards."@en1
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