Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-04-06-Speech-4-039"
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"en.20060406.5.4-039"2
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"Mr President, I too wish to congratulate Mr van den Berg on his report, which sees him picking up one of the hottest of hot potatoes in the field of development cooperation. Just how necessary it is that action be taken to deal with this is spelled out by the African Union’s estimates according to which corruption robs the African national economies of some USD 150 billion per annum, amounting to one-quarter of their gross domestic product.
I would like to start with the very same aspect to which Mr Gahler referred – the highlighting of the need for action on our part even when it hurts us the most. Bribes to the tune of a billion are paid every year – by whom? Who is it that regards the payment of this sort of money as an investment and remits it to closely-guarded accounts in the expectation of even greater profits? Important though it is to urge our partners to combat corruption and support them in doing so, our primary task should be to take off the field those in our own countries who are capable of paying such massive sums in bribes in the first place and using them to ruin Africa and other parts of the world.
I want to explicitly highlight Article 15 of the UN Convention against Corruption, according to which the Member States of the European Union must make bribery a criminal offence. In my own country, Germany, it was until recently the case that bribes could be set off against tax, and people can still not be punished for paying them.
We in this House should sweep away this foul-smelling filth from in front of our own front doors first. Like you, like everyone on the Development Committee, I support the ‘publish what you pay’ campaign and would go as far as to demand that multinational companies be compelled to make public information on the payments they make to governments.
Among the others who profit from bribery and to whose activities we must put a stop are those banks that offer their services in completing such transactions and can rejoice in accounts full to overflowing with bribes. This cannot be permitted within the EU, and so we should call on the EU and its Member States to cut off the channels for slush money outside its borders as well. When we have criminalised bribery here at home, when our own standard of living is no longer financed even in part by the profits of corruption, when we no longer sing the praises of our banking houses for making profits from the management of corruption and when we equip our investigating agencies with the wherewithal to chase after those who pay bribes – then will we be able to stand tall before our partners and bid them make the same contribution towards combating corruption."@en1
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