Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/1999-11-18-Speech-4-314"
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"en.19991118.17.4-314"2
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"Mr President, as draftsman of the opinion of the Committee on Budgetary Control, I should like to thank Mrs Heide Rühle for the excellent teamwork. It has been a real pleasure to work together on this matter. The European Investment Bank is an important tool in connection with aid to developing countries but, in order to help, the Bank needs loan guarantees provided by the EU. The guarantees are necessary if the Bank’s potential is to be used fully. I should therefore like to recommend the report, but I also have just a couple of remarks about the Investment Bank.
Combating fraud, muddle and incompetence in the EU’s systems is incredibly important. If we do not overcome the fraudulent use of taxpayers’ money, the population of Europe is never going to regard us in a positive light. It makes cooperation more difficult. Combating fraud is therefore something which should be given the highest priority everywhere. This also applies to the Investment Bank. In the Committee on Budgetary Control, we have fought a hard struggle over six years to obtain an insight into the Bank’s affairs and, yesterday, we finally got an agreement in regard to supervision of the Bank by the fraud office, OLAF. I think, however, that it is incredible that it should have been necessary to exert pressure on the Bank in connection with its guarantees from the EU before it became at all possible to talk with its officials. It ought not to have been necessary for us to take steps of that kind. I will put it like this: it would have been easier to enter Fort Knox in the United States than it was to enter the doors of the Investment Bank. The fact that the Bank has now been opened up means that OLAF can ask for information from the Bank. It also means that the Bank should turn to OLAF whenever it discovers fraud. Then, things will really have started to move.
Basically, the Investment Bank has now undertaken to cooperate to the maximum with OLAF in order to get to grips with fraud involving taxpayers’ money. The only way in which we can obtain a better relationship with the population of Europe is by being open and showing that we are using their money honestly and properly. The Bank has therefore decided that OLAF must begin an investigation when it comes to the matter of EU resources. This is in actual fact a tremendous victory for Parliament, and I therefore want to say that it has been a pleasure for me to lead this struggle. Now, my colleague can take over, and I am quite sure that he will be a very popular man throughout the Bank."@en1
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