Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-01-29-Speech-3-126"
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"en.20030129.6.3-126"2
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"Madam President, Mr McCartin has drawn up an excellent report on matters that Parliament focused its attention on when it granted discharge for 2000. I wish to express my sincerest thanks for that.
The way the EU budget is implemented is still unsatisfactory. This is particularly true of the way the Structural Funds programmes are implemented, which does not meet the requirements of good administration any more than it does the expectations of the public. The situation only got worse from 2000 to 2001 and the trend continued into 2002. In 2000, EUR 6.5 billion in Structural Funds appropriations remained unspent, in 2001 the figure was 10.5 billion, and last year it was 8.1 billion. The amount in unpaid commitments in respect of the Structural Funds has grown to EUR 66.7 billion, which is the equivalent of the budget for two years. The situation is very alarming.
The Commission has been totally incapable of improving its administration: indeed, the situation is entirely beyond remedy. The EU’s structural policy has to be thoroughly reviewed; this programming period threatens to be a real catastrophe.
The review of staff regulations that began in 2000 and is still going on is one of the most important of the reforms. In the opinion of my group it is important that the staff regulations should support the key objectives of administrative reform: improved efficiency, clarification of staff responsibilities with increased accountability, and the downward delegation of power. It must be the obligation of every official to apply the whistle blowing procedure where necessary. On the other hand, everyone must also be accountable for his or her actions in the sense that people must face the consequences of making groundless personal accusations. The European Union must not become a place of espionage.
There must be a more natural and swifter way to claw back EU funds paid out for no good reason. The present system is unwieldy and arbitrary, as is shown in the report by Jan Mulder, which we are to discuss next. Unfortunately, the Member States and the Commission are often on opposite sides of the negotiating table, even though they should really be on the same side.
I think the practice initiated by Mr McCartin of providing yearly follow-up with regard to the reports on discharge is appropriate, because it brings a long-term quality to Parliament’s monitoring of the Commission."@en1
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