Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-04-24-Speech-2-018"
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"en.20070424.4.2-018"2
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".
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to start by expressing my warm gratitude for the cooperation between the Committee on Development and the Commission, the Court of Auditors and the two rapporteurs Mr Camre and Mr Garriga Polledo. It is good to see that the House is taking full account of our observations in reaching its decisions.
The function of our Committee on Development is to check to see that the funds that we disburse in order to give the world’s most vulnerable people a helping hand and guide them towards self-sufficiency, are put to proper and appropriate use. Public acceptance of this is to a very large degree dependent on the impression not being communicated that this is about this or that potentate getting their bath taps gilded, but rather that the money really does get to the people who actually need it, and so this is what we have scrutinised in very considerable depth.
As in so many other contexts, the Court of Auditors has ascertained that serious errors were made in the way the money was spent. We have looked at them all individually and have, of course, been forced to note that errors were made in the procedure for spending the money. Rather, though, than being the sort of errors that might prove disadvantageous to the European Union, they were in fact procedural in nature and in need of improvement if we are to be able to say unequivocally that the funds have been properly used.
It has to be said, though, that the discharge process also possesses a political character, in that we are examining whether the Commission has indeed done that which we intended when the Budget was drawn up. We therefore examined whether the environmental legislation really had been made a priority, whether any real improvements had been made on the crisis prevention front, and whether – and about this there was serious disagreement – it was indeed the case that 20% of the funds for basic education and health care had been spent in the developing countries. It has to be said that the figures are on the up, but they are still a long way off the 20% on which we had agreed. The statement that this is all tied together with there being so many donors and institutions to coordinate is reassuring only to a very limited degree.
I have to make it clear to the House that the European Union – together with its Member States – is far and away the biggest donor in the world, and that is something we can be allowed to say with self-confidence. At the same time, though, it is not acceptable that someone should get up in front of this House and tell us that they have concentrated on other subject areas, and we hope that the priorities laid down by Parliament and the Council in the framing of their resolutions will eventually be set as such.
Our cooperation with the officials from the Commission went very well; firm commitments have been made to the effect that we will, over the course of the year, be given the information and indicators that we need and that there will be evidence of marked improvements. Speaking as someone who has always put a lot into the Budget process, I can spell it out to you that I shall also, when the next Budget is drawn up, be seeing to it that we keep a very close eye out for the improvements in Budget implementation that have been heralded – not only as regards the use of the funds for their intended purpose but also the achievement of policy targets – and that our behaviour, as a parliament, will be determined by whether or not you actually do as you have undertaken to do."@en1
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