Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-01-16-Speech-2-026"
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"en.20010116.3.2-026"2
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"Mr President, I would like to start by giving my thanks to the Court of Auditors for its very useful report this time on a range of issues. We were very critical of it at the time of the annual report but I think these special reports are very valuable.
There are clearly a range of areas where the Commission has yet to act to improve matters. Today, I am going to concentrate on a response to the report written by Mr Dell'Alba on various aspects of the Structural Funds. Certainly, in my country, this is one of the areas where the European Union can visibly claim to be making a difference, and there is a recognition that Structural Funds and the attempt to increase wealth, and improve social conditions and employment rates in an area give a positive image of the EU. But we cannot stand by and uncritically applaud. The reports by the Court of Auditors clearly show that there is room for radical improvement, and the Commission has already introduced a new Structural Fund regulation to improve the situation and will obviously be checking very carefully to see whether these reforms have gone far enough.
In the case of additionality, we must remember that European Funds are intended not to finance but to cofinance operations and must not take the place of public expenditure by national authorities. That is all very well, but even the new regulations only allow for assessment of additionality at a national level and not at a regional level. Rules are rules, but if there is no effective punishment after breaking them, they become weaker and unenforceable, so we need to see a solid legal basis to develop the possible imposition of sanctions.
On the issue of the development of industrial sites, the Commission should not wring its hands but say that this should only be seen as part of a wider policy to assist SMEs. Substantial sums go into these developments. In Wales, for example, we know that this is a clear target; we need clear targets and objectives and we will be looking forward to seeing those within the Structural Fund programmes in future."@en1
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