Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-07-04-Speech-2-141"
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"en.20000704.6.2-141"2
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"C
Mr President, I would like to thank you for allowing me to take the floor once again, because the sitting was just finishing when President Chirac arrived, albeit belatedly, but at least the flight from Paris to Strasbourg came together in the end.
This is a demand that the Committee on Budgetary Control has just put to Parliament, the Commission and of course the Council. We know that controversial discussions are taking place over this proposal in the Council and that it is failing to meet with a great deal of approval. That being the case, we should give thought to whether, in the event of this proposal failing to be adopted, the convention, which has still not been ratified, should be incorporated in a different form of legislation, perhaps even a directive.
On behalf of the Commission, I would again like to thank you for this morning’s debate and also for the constructive criticism, and I would like to reassure you once again that the Commission will take steps – some of which it has already taken – to guarantee more effective implementation of the budget of the European Union.
I would still like to answer some of the questions put to me during the debate. Firstly, there was the issue of restructuring budgetary control and the question as to how this is to be achieved. Again, on behalf of the Commission, I am able to tell you that in the first place, this will be done by setting up an internal audit service, which will be used to set up an independent and self-contained office. Naturally we intend to maintain centralised ex-ante control during the transitional period, and in fact this will take place following a risk management exercise, i.e. following an assessment of all the risks facing the various areas.
Secondly, there were questions to do with demanding the return of funds: the Fléchard case to be precise. Mrs Morgan asked me whether the Commission was still prepared to answer questions on this. Of course the Commission is willing to do so and I am in fact confident, Chairman of the Committee on Budgetary Control, that in this respect too, we will be able to find a way of completing the exchange of information in such a way that there are no disagreements or differences of opinion.
Another point raised concerned the search for the minutes of the meeting that took place in 1994. To the person who asked the question, I would reiterate that OLAF is carrying out a fresh search for the minutes which has yet to be completed. However the Commission – and I think this is important – has come to the conclusion that the entire archiving system needs to be overhauled.
Mrs Theato, you asked me what has become of the draft of the comprehensive legal framework, specifically for combating fraud, and not just for improving financial management. In the past week, the Commission adopted a strategy paper on a comprehensive approach to combating fraud, which we are certain to be able to discuss in the Committee on Budgetary Control before long. It proposes four courses of action, firstly that of comprehensive legislation to combat fraud, including fraud prevention, secondly extending cooperation with the Member States, the candidate states and third countries, then the third course of action would be interinstitutional cooperation for combating and preventing fraud in office. Fourthly, there is the improvement of the criminal dimension, i.e. criminal prosecution. On the subject of which, I am able to tell you that in all probability, the Commission will adopt a proposal for the Intergovernmental Conference before the end of this month recommending that the European Treaties be amended in such a way as to enable a European Public Prosecutor’s Office to be set up."@en1
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