Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-03-12-Speech-3-293"
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"en.20030312.10.3-293"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, I hope you feel as comfortable in this intimate circle at this time of day as I do, and you of course know why we are here at such a late hour. The Commission has been unable to comply with European law and deliver its report on the work of OLAF on schedule. Parliament has been waiting for this report. We assumed that as the guardian of the Treaties, the Commission itself could not possibly breach the Treaties – I have in mind Regulation 1073/99. That is why we are meeting here this evening. I hope that this will not happen again and hope to see the report in the very near future. We will be dealing with this issue during the discharge, Commissioner, as we cannot simply stand by and allow the guardian of the treaties knowingly to violate those same treaties.
Now let me turn to a couple of positive points. The first is that I am very pleased that OLAF's Supervisory Committee members have finally been reappointed, and I hope that we will be adopting an amendment on that tomorrow. We were appalled that one Member State should have attempted to block the reappointment of those members for very trivial reasons. I would like to congratulate the Greek Presidency on this achievement, and I specifically wish to thank you, Commissioner, for your support in this area.
My second point is that I am very pleased that the Commission is finally intending to take measures against a former Commissioner. In doing so it will be complying with the specific wishes of the European Parliament, in accordance with Article 213 of the EC Treaty. Quite apart from the financial scale of the alleged irregularities, it is important for this matter to be progressed if we are to change Europe's administrative culture.
Commissioner, while I am talking about our administrative culture, that of course brings me to the subject of Eurostat. I really did not think that it was still possible, over three years after the resignation of a Commission, for nothing to be done about issues affecting an institution as important as Eurostat, which actually has to monitor the warning letters sent to the EU's finance ministers. I can tell you now that it was not Parliament that uncovered these irregularities but the Commission, which has known since 1999 at the latest that things were not right with Eurostat, and you have simply stood by and done nothing for years. The only measure that you have taken has to do with the official who raised this issue again after OLAF's failure to act in 1999, whom you packed off to Denmark on full pay.
This situation reminds me of a Dutch official we once had here, when exactly the same thing happened. No action was taken, there was not a trace of the zero tolerance policy promised us at the beginning of this period. All I can do is to call on the Commission to mend its ways here as soon as possible. Your responsibilities are not just limited to a square mile in Brussels, you are responsible to 370 million Europeans – 370 million Europeans who are represented by this House, and it seems that you still want to hide more from us than you reveal to us.
I would like to give you an example of what I consider to be unacceptable. I received a telephone call today, and I hope you will allow me a few more seconds to mention this, Mr President, because a fundamental issue is at stake here. As you know, funds are provided under EU budget heading A-3035 for maintaining the sites of Nazi concentration camps. We are talking here about one of the foundations for the unification of Europe. There is also provision for supporting organisations whose primary aim is to keep alive the memory of the victims of Nazi concentration camps or to investigate the phenomenon of National Socialism from a historical point of view. All applications need to relate to a project commencing between 1 July 2003 and 1 December 2003 and ending by 30 June 2004. Commissioner, the commemorative days for the victims of these Nazi camps are held on the anniversary of their liberation. It is a matter of fact that back in 1945 the camps were not liberated between 1 July and 31 December, but in the spring, in April and May, and that is when these memorial days are marked. Have your officials still failed to realise that, Commissioner?
This is a good example of the failure to reform the European Union's administration. I accordingly call on you to put an end to such nonsense immediately and to finally enact provisions that reflect the breadth and dignity of this programme!"@en1
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