Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-09-14-Speech-3-523-000"
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"en.20110914.31.3-523-000"2
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"Mr President, Member of the Council, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, I too would like to join my colleagues who have welcomed the anti-corruption package approved by the European Commission on 6 June. Corruption is a transnational phenomenon and European-wide measures are needed to fight it.
According to estimates from Eurobarometer, the vast majority of our European citizens believe that Europe should do more. How can we fault them? Many Member States have lacked the political will to fight corruption. One only has to consider that some European countries have still not signed the United Nations Convention Against Corruption.
If we think of the devastating effect of corruption on democratic processes, citizens’ rights and confidence in the rule of law, it is clear that the national anti-corruption measures adopted by Member States to date are not sufficient to curb what is a growing problem. The European Union has to give a unified, strong response, especially now, in the midst of an unprecedented economic crisis, which is having an impact on people’s lives, on the survival of welfare and pension systems, and on the ability of institutions to guarantee essential services.
Each year corruption causes the loss of EUR 120 billion, the equivalent of 1% of the European Union GDP. Every day it siphons off resources belonging to the EU and to Member States that could be used to provide key services – education, children’s services, employment and transport. In other words it siphons off clean resources from services to support people.
We therefore need to be more courageous and more firm, both in overseeing the implementation of anti-corruption measures, and in intensifying and strengthening measures to combat corruption at EU level. More specifically, we cannot talk about combating corruption unless we are capable of adopting at least basic standards for defining the crime of corruption, which there is no trace of in the package just launched.
The same goes for the definition of standard parameters for measuring the extent of the problem in Member States, which is essential for preparing an adequate response. For example, we are in favour of relaunching the network of EU anti-corruption contact points, as I proposed in the resolution we will be voting on tomorrow."@en1
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