Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-10-24-Speech-2-153"
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"en.20001024.5.2-153"2
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". – Mr President, in previous years’ debates I spoke for the Committee on Culture, Youth, Education, the Media and Sport, where we heard from Mrs Iivari this afternoon. Very little money indeed is spent. I totally support the remarks made by Mrs Iivari which draw attention to that problem. I speak this year for the Committee on Petitions, where we spend even less money, indeed hardly any money at all. Maybe that is as it should be. Certainly as the budget rapporteur I commend the good relations we have had with Mr Ferber.
In speaking this afternoon I commend to the House those budget lines that are dedicated to the work of the Petitions Committee and the European Ombudsman. A prime responsibility of any elected parliament is to protect the interests of the individual citizens against the executive. In our case we have to ensure not only that the Commission respects European policy but that the Member States do so as well and fulfil their Treaty obligations. They are not always ready to do so.
There are no better guardians of the Treaties than the European citizens. An important way that the citizens can ensure that their concerns are addressed is by appealing either to the Ombudsman or petitioning Parliament. It is a cheap process for us; for the citizen it is free. Compare that to redress through the courts of law. I urge the House to see that the Ombudsman has adequate staff to do his job properly and the Petitions Committee has adequate tools to do its job properly. In particular, this year we have asked – and I believe we will have the support of the House – to ensure that there is adequate money to see that we have a proper interactive database so that Members, staff and citizens can address their concerns and see how they are progressing through Parliament. There has already been good progress. At the moment it is just the citizens who cannot access the database. I hope they will very quickly have that possibility.
I should like to draw attention to the fact that the issue we are petitioned on is the question of fraud and mismanagement of money in the European Union. We need to be aware of that. But I would like to say to Parliament this afternoon that we should not lose sight of the fact that the EU spends just 1% of GDP and much of that is administered in the Member States.
If we are looking for waste and fraud, it is not just found within the European Union. Over the last few weeks in Britain alone I have monitored what the press has been saying about cases of fraud, waste and mismanagement in Britain: social security fraud – GBP 4.5 billion; serious fraud offices investigating 81 cases covering GBP 1.4 billion; housing benefit fraud – GBP 185 million; giro cheque fraud – GBP 240 million. In just one month I have found those cases. Only last weekend we learned that General Abacha of Nigeria laundered GBP 4.5 billion through the banks in London without the proper authorities knowing about it.
So certainly we must make sure that we have our affairs in order in Europe but anybody reporting these issues should never forget that it is not just the European Union that needs to address those issues seriously."@en1
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