Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-04-05-Speech-2-419-000"
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"en.20110405.20.2-419-000"2
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"Madam President, this report on the protection of the European Union’s financial interests is based on the report drafted by the Commission according to Article 325 of the Treaty of the Functioning of the European Union. This article refers in no uncertain terms to the fight against fraud, while the Commission’s report fails to give a very clear indication as to what percentage of the irregularities are due to fraud and what percentage are simple errors.
It is of paramount importance that we define very clearly what is meant by fraud because the use of this term means an act of deliberate infringement. We are talking about corruption in the proper sense of the word, whereas mistakes are unintentional. While we may agree to tolerate errors, we can, in no way, tolerate any act of fraud. There must be zero tolerance of fraud when it comes to European funds and the European Union’s budget.
Another major problem relates to the collection of data and information. We must have a very serious discussion about the way in which Member States pass on to the European Union, to the European Commission to be more exact, information about the way in which EU funds are used. In my view, the content of the national management declarations will be of a higher quality when they entail much greater political responsibility at national level. I ask the Commission once again to ensure that these national management declarations are signed by the relevant minister or a minister from the national government.
In another respect, the EUR 16.7 billion contained in the European Union budget are own resources and mainly revenue from customs duties. Seventy per cent of imports come through the simplified procedure. I would like to quote at this point from Special Report No 1/2010 from the Court of Auditors of the European Union, which points out the following: ‘the control carried out on these simplified procedures is very limited, while the number of errors identified by the Court is alarming’. It is of paramount importance that, in this case, the Commission evaluates the financial impact of these irregularities.
I wish to congratulate OLAF for the Diablo II operation, aimed not only at protecting the European Union’s financial interests but also, at the same time, at combating counterfeit products. Apart from the detrimental impact these counterfeit products have on the European Union’s fiscal framework and budget, there is also the risk to European citizens’ safety and the adverse effects in the European Union’s economy.
I will continue to refer to the costs involved and to mention, on the one hand, the use of European funds and, on the other hand, the recovery of funds which have been allocated without justification. On the subject of the use of European funds, we must mention the Integrated Administration and Control System, which is an excellent system but causes huge problems when it has been implemented because it is based on incorrect databases and is also hampered due to the identification of the parcels to be used.
In addition, on the subject of recovering European funds, the only thing I can say is that I find it worrying that 42% of agricultural funds are recovered and only 50% of the cohesion funds. These are extremely alarming figures and we must keep a very close eye on fund recovery."@en1
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