Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-11-26-Speech-4-020"
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"en.20091126.3.4-020"2
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"Mr President, Mr Kallas, Mr Caldeira, I can see both good things and bad things in the presentation of the Court of Auditors’ annual report on the EU budget. First of all, I would like to thank the Court of Auditors for a clearer, bolder and more political report which is easier for us to understand.
The good areas include the management of the budget as a whole. In contrast to recent years, this has improved. This is, above all, the result of better management of funds in the area of agriculture and natural resources, which has been our biggest headache over the last few years.
For the first time, Mr Caldeira, you do not give an adverse opinion in your report and that is good news. The report highlights the fact that wherever the EU itself controls and administers the funds, there is proper budget management. Whether it is efficient is another matter. I would like to congratulate Mr Kallas warmly in this respect. It is to your credit and during your period of office that this visible improvement has taken place. Congratulations!
However, it is now the responsibility of the Member States in particular to improve their control systems. If there is continuing cause for criticism of budgetary management in the EU, this is not at an EU level – as we have now seen – but at the level of the Member States. This is where the problems lie. Cohesion policy, for example, which is implemented by the Member States and which receives around a third of the funds, is the major problem area. You say that 11% is irregular and the non-attached Member said that the figure was EUR 4 billion. That is not correct. It is over EUR 2.5 billion, which you specifically state is taxpayers’ money that should not have been spent. We must say this quite clearly and we must introduce clear controls.
However, the consequence is that the European Commission must continue to exert pressure on the Member States and we will support you in this area, Mr Kallas. We must implement a policy of naming and shaming. We must publicly shame the wasteful Member States, which continue to exist, and describe the situation clearly.
Overall, you come to the conclusion that the regulations must be simplified. We would like to support you in this and we would like to add one other request. There must be an increased focus not only on regularity but also on efficiency, to ensure that taxpayers’ money is spent correctly."@en1
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