Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-11-15-Speech-2-630-000"
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"en.20111115.33.2-630-000"2
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"Mr President, I would like to start by thanking the Court of Auditors for an excellent report. I think you have succeeded in the feat of presenting more details while, at the same time, making it easier to understand.
However, let me start by putting this year’s discharge procedure in context. Confidence in the way Europe manages its budgetary discipline and administration of public funds has been shaken to the core. It is up to us, in conjunction with the Commission, the Court of Auditors and, above all, the Member States, to start to show that Europe, in the shape of the EU, is at least successfully dealing with these issues and, in so doing, to rebuild confidence. Therefore, this year’s discharge procedure is a particularly important one. Nothing must be hidden away, nothing must escape critical inspection – and that is our responsibility.
If I were to be unkind and summarise the message that I heard from the President of the Court of Auditors, Mr Caldeira, and Commissioner Šemeta, I would say that I have understood the Court of Auditors to be saying that the situation is stable and that we do not see any dramatic changes. The Commission agrees, but indicates that we are on the right road and sees progress in the areas of aid and research. The problem is simply that stable is not good enough. We were disappointed last year. To hear that things look about the same this year is, unfortunately, not good news. What I think stands out from the stable situation is, sadly, the negative aspects.
If I were to make three quick observations then, firstly, there is the fact that we have serious problems with cohesion policy. In this area, the Member States have a large degree of responsibility. A small number of Member States – often the same ones – account for the lion’s share of the problems year after year, which is unacceptable. It is particularly worth noting what the Court of Auditors points out, namely that 58% of the problems are ones that the Member States could have anticipated.
The second observation concerns the question of financial engineering instruments. Reading chapter 4 of the Court of Auditors’ report makes me feel genuinely concerned, particularly as the Commission is saying that we should increase the use of these instruments and that they pose a big risk.
Last but not least, the question of how the budget crisis will affect the EU budget. We are in the midst of a crisis – a budget crisis – in the Member States. This clearly involves risks for the EU, both financial risks and risks of more errors. We need to examine this. I am grateful to President Caldeira for taking up the problems with the European Financial Stabilisation Mechanism (EFSM) and the European Stability Mechanism (ESM). We need more scrutiny and parliamentary influence in this regard. We promise to talk more about this. Thank you for your excellent work thus far. I look forward to continuing our cooperation."@en1
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