Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-06-12-Speech-3-230"
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"en.20020612.5.3-230"2
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"Mr President, I am speaking specifically about the Turco reports. I agree that they represent a damning indictment of the management of the Structural, Cohesion and ISPA Funds. It is simply not acceptable, for example, that there are many programmes dating from the 1980s and 1990s that have still not been closed. Likewise, no disbursement of funds has been made under programmes such as Urban, Interreg or Leader in the year in question. As the report implies, this has been nothing but a catalogue of errors. Recent reports by the European Court of Auditors and OLAF have revealed substantial holes in the Commission's accounts. OLAF alone has investigated cases with a value of EUR 144 million this year. Where has all this money gone?
It is now essential that the Commission starts to act with more financial probity, in order to retain what remains of its credibility. In view of the fact that 35 programmes from 1989 are still on the Commission's books, nine years after payments were due to finish, it is imperative that suitable measures are introduced now to bring projects in on time and on budget. Therefore, the n+2 principle should be rigorously applied across these funds, so that the European taxpayer is not left to foot the bill for projects which run on over their funding deadlines. Similarly, Member States are not blameless in this funding fiasco. It is amazing that reportedly over EUR 100 billion remains unspent, due in large part to lack of action by national governments. The UK is one of the worst offenders in this respect. I am appalled that, for example, less than 5% of available EU funding had been taken up in my own region at the beginning of the year. These funds are not and should not be infinite. If neither the Commission nor the Member State can get their act together, they should be returned to where they belong – the pockets of the European taxpayer."@en1
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