Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-04-22-Speech-2-068"
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"en.20080422.4.2-068"2
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"Mr President, I would like to thank Commissioner Kallas. It is clear that we have been through a process where the waves have been a little choppy at times. There has been conflict between ourselves in Parliament and the Commission. However, it is a conflict that we have managed to transform into a dialogue. It has led to some good results and some good pledges from the Commission, and also to some very concrete action plans with specific deadlines and specific success criteria. We must persist during times when some Members from the more EU-sceptic groups say: ‘it is just words, and words that have been said before’. This is not true! It is certainly not just about words, but about specific actions, which the Commission is now promising to implement. Some measures have already been implemented. In addition, some very specific deadlines have also been established, which we will be able to monitor. A key element is that we will now have a commissioner who will meet with the committee once a month in order to follow this process. This really is a great stride forward.
That said, by way of conclusion I would like to remind people why these problems arise. One of the reasons is that a considerable proportion of the funds is administered under shared management, i.e. 80% of the EU’s funds are managed by the Member States. It is the responsibility of the Commission to follow the Treaty and it is a cross that it must bear. Therefore, we strongly criticise the Commission. However, in reality, much of the problem lies with the Member States. This is the reason why here in Parliament we are such staunch supporters of the idea of annual national audit declarations, signed at the appropriate political level, i.e. by the finance minister. This is happening already in a number of countries: Denmark, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Sweden. If we could achieve something similar in all EU countries, we would find that these auditing obligations would be taken more seriously in the individual countries. I think that we would actually gain a really good tool for eliminating those areas where things are not working in the individual countries."@en1
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