Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-05-30-Speech-4-057"
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"en.20020530.5.4-057"2
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"Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, the supplementary and amending budget on which we are to decide today is one that will surely please the Finance Ministers, as they will be getting EUR 10.5 billion back. On the basis of mutual trust, we have withdrawn the amendments we tabled at first reading stage. We have to rely on the measures the Council has taken, and the Council can have confidence in our procedures. We have also done this because Commissioner Schreyer said last time that the funds we had reinstated could not be utilised. We cannot but wonder, though, why the funds are flowing at no better a rate than we find here. We have a total of EUR 113 billion left over, EUR 82 billion alone in the area of the Structural Funds, and, quite apart from this, EUR 11.4 billion in the area of internal affairs policy and EUR 12.9 billion in the area of category 4.
In the long run, this cannot be tolerated. Having already spent many years lamenting the arrears that have to be reduced, we have to come up with something a bit more definite. The question is whether the late entry into force of some of the programmes adopted actually has anything to do with it. The question also arises of whether the form in which we allocate these funds, with the amount of bureaucracy required, does not in many instances prevent the appropriation of money that the European taxpayer has made available in order to improve the situation of many people in Europe. I speak for the Social Democrats in suggesting that we, over the coming weeks, should push for a joint efficiency force, and I ask the Commission, in particular, to play its part in this. Such an efficiency force would be composed of people from outside – experts in administration and management, and also experts from the Court of Auditors, because the whole set-up has of course to be run properly if we want to work more efficiently, more quickly and with less bureaucracy. These outsiders will have to submit proposals to us concerning how the relevant application procedures might be improved.
This should involve us making relevant enquiries of, for example, officials of the Commission who are affected, the national and regional partners, businesses and organisations, and the regional banks, who have a role to play in the allocation of funding. The Euro Info Centres, which have a lot of expertise at their disposal, should also be involved. We must aim, not to start by getting this money into the European Budget and then return it, but to actually allocate it to the practical policies that we decided on. In doing this now, we must act with greater determination than in the past."@en1
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