Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-03-27-Speech-4-051"

Predicate	Value (sorted: default)
rdf:type	lpv_eu:Speech2
dcterms:Date	"2003-03-27"^^xsd:date2
dcterms:Is Part Of	lp_eu:Protection of the financial interests of the Community and the European Prosecutor2
dcterms:Language	"en"^^xsd:language2
lpv:document identification number	"en.20030327.2.4-051"2
lpv:hasSubsequent	lp_eu:2003-03-27-Speech-4-0522
lpv:speaker	lp:Eluned Morgan2
lpv:spoken text	"Mr President, today we have an open market within the European Union, but that means that the market is also open to fraudsters. Most of the fraud against the EU actually comes from money not collected. The Commission has estimated that EUR 90 billion has been lost to the EU budget from cigarette smuggling alone. We have some measures in place to stop fraud from occurring. OLAF has been established, it does its job and passes on the file to the Member States – where it sits on a shelf. We could sanction the Court of Auditors, but the question still has to be answered: who prosecutes? We could fraud-proof further but the question remains: who prosecutes? The establishment of Eurojust is there, but again: who prosecutes? The answer, which is factual rather than theoretical, is: almost nobody. Member States are not serious about tackling fraud in the EU. It took five years for them to ratify the Convention on the protection of financial interests. Prosecution against people who rip off the EU is absolutely minimal. The current system does not work. It is extremely difficult to prosecute cross-border fraud, partly because evidence collected in one Member State does not count in another Member State. What we have here on the table is a Green Paper. It is essential that the European Public Prosecutor's powers are restricted to the financial interests of the EU budget. Anything beyond that opens the door to massive complications and serious constitutional implications – which is why Paragraph 4, which calls for a judicial area to be set up, is nonsense. If the problem exists now, just imagine how difficult it will become following enlargement. If we are serious about tackling fraud, we must accept that the current system does not work and until there is an acceptable alternative, we must go along with this."@en1
lpv:spokenAs	member; Delegation for relations with the Mashreq countries and the Gulf (2002-03-07--2004-07-19)3 member; PES (1999-07-20--2004-07-19)3 member; CONT (2002-01-17--2003-09-21)3 substitute; Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Consumer Policy (2002-01-17--2004-07-19)3 unknown; Labour Party (1999-07-20--2004-07-19)3
lpv:unclassifiedMetadata	"(Applause)"1 "Morgan (PSE )."1

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