Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-04-21-Speech-2-164"
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"en.20090421.19.2-164"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I have the honourable task of offering my thanks, firstly to the rapporteurs, who have done a great job and have tabled constructive reports, one of which we still have to debate tomorrow. Secondly, I would like to thank the excellent secretariat that has supported us in recent years. With regard to those who succeed us, I can only hope that they have such an excellent staff working for them.
However, there is something, Mr President, that I do not understand. Looking at the press preview – the preview of the plenary sitting of 21 to 24 April – I can read about the important reports on the immunity of MEPs, but there is nothing about the discharges for the 2007 financial year. If we do not recognise the rights of Parliament, who then in the general public will recognise us, take us seriously and vote on 7 June if this is what we do with the most powerful right that Parliament has? This right is to control how over EUR 100 billion was spent during 2007.
If we do not discuss facts then we will have to discuss rumours. Mr Ferber has already mentioned this point. We have to build this Europe on facts. We need the cooperation and constructive ideas that we have developed over recent years. It is not surprising that, at the end of this period, we have actually created the greatest productive power and the greatest degree of clarity in this period. This is partly due to the people involved, whom I would like to congratulate, but it is also due to the fact that we have ourselves become clear about various things, one of which being what control ultimately means to European taxpayers.
We ought to know that we also go beyond this single year of 2007. Of course, we know that some wrong turns were taken and we have rectified these to some extent. I am very grateful to Mr Costas for what he said. During this period, we have established a Statute for Assistants. This is something that we were criticised for a few years ago. We established a Statute for Assistants and we were also criticised for this. Some people may not be one hundred percent convinced about this, but let us not forget, as members of the Committee on Budgetary Control, that things cannot always be done according to the German, Portuguese, Austrian or Spanish model. We need a European model. That is sometimes rather difficult and, particularly during election time, occasionally hard to represent. I am very grateful to everyone who has resisted the temptations of the forthcoming election campaign and said: we will stick to the facts, and we are also prepared to explain these facts to our fellow Members and also to the voters.
Mr Kallas, I would like to add one more point, as we will also talk about this in connection with the Audy discharge, which I very much welcome. It relates to an alleged bank fee. For many years the Commission has been tardy in its calculation of the gross domestic product of the European Union in order to get the GNI, which is actually stipulated, onto a proper footing. That costs various Member States several million euros, which we have talked about. I hope that you or your successor will clear this up accordingly.
Mr President, I am very thankful for this excellent piece of work produced by my committee and, as you know, tomorrow we will recommend that the discharge not be granted. I am very pleased to be chairman of this committee. Thank you very much."@en1
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