Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-04-09-Speech-2-046"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20020409.3.2-046"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
"Mr President, I should like to begin by commending my colleagues in the Committee on Budgetary Control, together with the committee’s chairman, and also thanking those who participated in the committee and in the groups and who have carried out a very notable and thorough piece of work. This splendid work has led the majority to recommend giving discharge. Because of the little time available, I am unable to go into details concerning these many matters, just as others cannot either, but I would refer you to the excellent observations made by my colleagues, Mr Virrankoski, Mr Blak and Mrs Morgan. I shall concentrate on Mr McCartin’s report on discharge to the Commission. I should like to quote from two recitals. Recital L reads: “whereas 2000 was marked by a significant increase in the volume of fraud and irregularities identified by Member States and OLAF”. Recital P reads: “whereas, in considering budget implementation in 2000, the fundamental question is to establish, firstly, the Community management features which should be the basis for effectiveness but are deficient, and, secondly, the components within the system which are conducive to fraud and irregularity”. There then follows a long list of incisive observations which, on being read, give the impression of our being concerned here with a South American banana republic. The EU was not established just a couple of years ago. This system has been in place since 1957, and it is wholly unsatisfactory that, year after year, we should write these reports, clearly and emphatically pointing out the errors, but that nothing improves. Next year, we shall write something which, for a change, resembles what we are writing this year, and then still give discharge. It should be noted that the criticism in Mr McCartin’s report is just as severe as that in the report on the 1996 accounts, which brought the previous Commission down. Financial management and the legislation itself are unacceptably bad. In my country, a government characterised by management of this kind would be overturned, and the officials responsible fired. It is not good enough for so much of European taxpayers’ money to disappear due to fraud and irregularities. People will simply not put up with it. This cannot be the price of cooperation in Europe. The only logical conclusion is, of course, to vote against giving discharge to the Commission."@en1
|
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples