Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-12-04-Speech-3-026"
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"en.20021204.2.3-026"2
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".
Mr President, aware as I am of your usual agenda, I would like to thank you most sincerely for being here. Thank you very much.
I therefore believe it is prudent to wait for the Solicitor-General in Luxembourg to assess the documentation provided to him by OLAF. But it should be noted that at this very moment there is a group of members of the Court working on this issue. What for? To get as much as possible done before the Solicitor-General gives his opinion, whatever that opinion may be and whatever assessment he sees fit to make.
Mr Dell'Alba said that he is worried. I believe we should all be worried. And we should all be because whether the Commission improves or not depends on all of us.
I know that the honourable Members fulfil their duties, and I know because I used to be a Member of this House, and I remember how I used to enjoy getting stuck in. But I must say that I have found a completely different situation. It is not that I have passed over to the enemy or changed sides, nor have I moved over from Barcelona to Real Madrid, no; I have genuinely found a Commission which is different to the one I was accustomed to dealing with. A Commission in which I see daily changes. You say these changes cannot yet be seen in the final result? It is true, they cannot. And do you know why? Because this is not simply a face-lift. If it were simply a face-lift, a nip and a tuck, and the results would be visible very soon. The Commission is undergoing a profound change. And therefore until next year I am sure we will not see any changes.
I believe that that confidence, and as well as confidence, help, should be offered by all of us, and we must not forget – you are in contact with the governments, with the States, and you must pass this on also to the governments – that one of the current problems the Commission has in terms of improving its results, the Community budget for improving its results, is also in the hands of the governments. Therefore, I believe that if all the institutions as well as the governments make an effort, we will help the Commission to achieve tangible results as soon as possible.
I would say to Mr Heaton-Harris that I am sorry but I am not going to reply in relation to the former chief accountant because a disciplinary procedure is under way and I am not therefore going to answer. What I can say, and we should all agree on this, is that I believe there has been a mistake in the procedure; there has been a procedural error.
And I would say to Mrs Morgan that of course we are making an effort. You ask us to make an effort; we really do make an effort every day, everyday we increase contacts and dialogue with the various institutions in order to improve our work. We hope that this work will be increasingly useful to you. I am prepared to commit myself to this, of course. I believed that the approach of the report had managed to improve something, because all I have done is seek something I would have asked for and present it as a consequence. It seems that it is not yet sufficient, but I promise, Mrs Morgan, that next year we will make a further effort.
There have been a series of specific questions and general comments, but to stay somewhat in line with the agenda, I believe it was Mr Kuhne who said that he had confidence in Mr Casaca. As far as I am concerned, naturally, as far as I know, that confidence is complete and absolute. But not only confidence in him, but in the whole House, in all the Members, but I am aware of the usual good work of Mr Casaca.
Furthermore, issues relating to the DAS have been mentioned. We are often asked when we will be able to provide a positive DAS. Well, I am convinced that the day that the internal control of the Commission – which has just begun – is working properly, will be the day when the DAS is positive. Because I am sure that it will be the Commission that rectifies and controls itself.
Why do we not give the error rate? I have said several times, whenever I am asked, that the error rate provides limited information and may lead to distorted interpretations. I therefore believe it is better not to provide this information.
We are then told that we could provide the DAS by sector. If only! And I say ‘if only’ because if we had the resources to carry out a DAS by sector, you may rest assured that we would do so. And you may be sure that we would derive much more information.
The truth is that today, with the information provided by the DAS, something very clear has to be taken into account: to speak of mistakes does not always mean speaking of irregularities, and speaking of irregularities does not always mean speaking of fraud. Therefore, what the error rate indicates are errors and what we have to look at is the background to these errors. This error rate, because of the sampling system employed, is so small, that what we cannot do is give it to Parliament so that it can interpret it as if it were a clear result, which indicates exactly what people want to hear. That is the reason.
We are working on a new methodology for the DAS and we hope that with that new methodology we will be able to reach a point where we can provide the information required by Parliament and that that will be sufficient for the needs of our budgetary authority, both the Council and Parliament.
Mr Staes asked me a question about the case of Mrs N. All I can say about this is that, from the moment OLAF arrived at the Court of Auditors, all doors were left open to them, the cupboards unlocked and the computers switched on so that they could look at whatever they want.
When you ask whether we have already taken measures, I believe that the Court of Auditors has adopted a prudent attitude, waiting for the Solicitor-General to assess the documentation provided by OLAF, because member N has yet to be heard. I believe that we, as the Court of Auditors, cannot pass judgment, because although we are called a court, we do not pass judgment, we only make recommendations."@en1
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