Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-04-20-Speech-2-433"
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"en.20040420.18.2-433"2
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"Mr President, there is a difference between blame and responsibility. It is perfectly possible to have responsibility without being to blame. With our motion of censure, we do not wish to apportion blame for the Eurostat scandal to Mr Solbes or any other Commissioner. We merely insist that the Commission itself apportion responsibility. The person responsible can then explain what he has done to apportion blame and to prevent any repetition. We can then take note of any explanation. It is as simple as that. We have no desire to see particular heads on a plate. It is, however, completely unacceptable for the Commissioner who has formal responsibility to come to us and say, ‘I am not responsible, because I did not know what was happening.’ The implication of Mr Solbes’ answer to us is that all the Commissioners will be free from responsibility and will instruct their colleagues not to bring anything near their desks. I should like to see who dares vote in favour of that logic.
My group does not recognise the EU’s accounts for the year in which chief accounting officer Marta Andreasen was suspended. In 1997, the recognised accountancy firm, Lloyd, estimated annual fraud at eight billion euros. Since then, we have seen fewer cases, but there are larger amounts involved. The figures may be much worse, since there is no supervisory authority with a complete overview. The Court of Auditors cannot obtain all the documents, the Ombudsman is not entitled to see everything and the Committee on Budgetary Control only receives superficial information. As a Member of this Parliament for 25 years, I have requested basic information concerning the use of EU funds and never obtained serious answers, for example about the distribution of agricultural aid or the number of working parties and their participants. There is only one language that the top officials in the Commission’s numerous fiefdoms understand. If we refuse to approve the accounts, Mr Prodi and his colleagues will have the opportunity to put their own house in order. At present, they are merely prisoners of bad habits going back decades. We should free them, reject the accounts and say where political accountability lies."@en1
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