Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-04-21-Speech-3-015"
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"en.20100421.3.3-015"2
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"Good morning Mr President, ladies and gentlemen. I would like to repeat that, in my opinion, it is rather difficult to conduct a debate in the absence of those to whom we are supposed to grant discharge, with whom we want to discuss the reasons why we are granting discharge or are postponing discharge or whatever else we have to talk to them about.
Finally, to external policy actions. We need a demonstration of the determination of the EU to contribute to the resolution of problems worldwide. These actions must be highly effective, even under the most difficult circumstances. In the coming months, we must discuss the current management of EU funds in this area with the Commission and how these funds will be managed in future by the European External Action Service.
We are, however, making some progress. Our group is particularly pleased with the steps the Commission is taking as regards the annual management reports of the Member States, for example, since we are thereby getting closer to the realisation of an old demand of the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats. The same is true for the financial corrections and recoveries, since this is also an opportunity to reduce an unacceptably high rate of errors.
These points give us, among other things, the opportunity, some considerations notwithstanding, to call for the discharge of the Commission. I thank you and look forward to your comments.
I know many of the honourable Members of this House from the committee. We also know our respective positions. It is fine that we will exchange them once again this morning, but it is not really helpful. In this context, I would like to propose that in committee, we deliberate formally inviting the institutions we are discussing to the next discharge debate and postponing the debates accordingly if they are not present.
Discharge to the European institutions comes at a difficult, but important moment. A consequence of the financial crisis is that all governments are having to review their respective budgets and ensure that they are meeting their requirements. We are in the first year of a new legislative period of the European Parliament and are dealing with a newly assembled Commission. In terms of the discharge, we are, however, considering the 2008 budget, which was under the responsibility of the previous Commission. This opens a multitude of new perspectives.
Among these new perspectives, we should expect a new way of thinking and a new approach on the part of the Member States since, for the first time, the Treaty of Lisbon names them as being co-responsible for the implementation of the EU budget.
In terms of the 2008 budgetary review, it was the rapporteur’s intention to ensure that the Commission concentrates entirely on possibilities for improvement in budgetary control and that the Member States are on board for that as well. As the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the Committee on Budgetary Control, it is our goal that in future, every discharge report – on the basis of the judgment of the European Court of Auditors – is better than the previous one. It all depends on the Council assuming its new key roll in the light of the importance of the Member States.
It would be equally helpful if the European Court of Auditors looked for ways of redressing the imbalance that is, on the one hand, the result of annual reporting and the multiannual duration of many EU programmes and the logic of their implementation by the Commission and the Member States.
As the budgetary authority, we continue to have great concerns regarding some specific areas of responsibility, and, in particular, those in which the EU intends to implement its political priorities. For example, cohesion in the European Union is essential and therefore, the funds that flow into structural policy are particularly important. Here, we need to continue combating sources of errors decisively through simpler rules and recovering funds wrongly paid. We need finer instruments to measure results and we call on the Court of Auditors to develop these instruments, in order to be able to identify precisely the sources of errors.
We know that the action plan for the structural funds that provides for recovery is finally being implemented and we must now wait for it to have an effect. Pre-accession aid has the goal of enabling fundamental processes of change in these states and problems in target setting and implementation must be remedied. What will not do, however, is the fact that the goal of the accession process is effectively being torpedoed through the back door.
Therefore, I call on the House to reject the attempt by the Group of the European People’s Party (Christian Democrats) to use amendments to turn the position of the European Parliament on Turkey’s accession process on its head, as recorded in the resolution on the progress report. We are looking forward to the appointment of a new Director-General of the European Antifraud Office (OLAF) to end the ongoing debate, and also the Commission’s proposals on the reform of OLAF, in order to improve the crucial work of this office."@en1
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