Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-03-27-Speech-4-039"
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"en.20030327.2.4-039"2
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"Mr President, the Group of the Party of European Socialists in this House fully supports Mrs Theato’s report and also congratulates her on the work presented to us here. I believe it is no accident that the Committee on Budgetary Control repeatedly comes forward with such initiatives since we are finding from experience that it is impossible to protect a budget that has now grown to EUR 100 000 million with the funds of 50 years ago, that is with national funds. This clear statement and such initiatives as today’s Theato report are things we owe to our taxpayers.
They know there have been initiatives like OLAF. We know everything is not yet perfect. There are intermediate stages and I believe a Public Prosecutor of this kind will not be the most perfect thing of all time, either. But it will be a very important step towards protecting Europe’s taxpayers. And it is important, above all, that Parliament should make clear that this institution will have a democratic foundation. Europe also has institutions, such as Europol, that are not subject to parliamentary scrutiny, and it is therefore not surprising that people learn from the media that the Member States apparently allow Europol, behind closed doors, to process quite fantastic amounts of money. Obviously there is no transparency because Parliament is not involved and I believe it is important that we secure these things for the Public Prosecutor. We have already on occasion – and in other reports – pointed out that we want this Article 280(a). Parliament voted on it again two weeks ago in Strasbourg and I hope that here, too, Parliament will back the rapporteur’s third paragraph, which deals with this.
From time to time, quite specific examples make clear how important a Public Prosecutor is for us. Not long ago, we called on the smallest Member State, Luxembourg, to take action in a case – the so-called Perilux affair – that has been pending at the Luxembourg Public Prosecutor’s office for years. Massive amounts of European taxpayer’s money are involved. Luxembourg is not responding, and we must stress from this place once again how important a European Public Prosecutor would be to perhaps give a bit of a kick to Member States that do not take European taxpayers’ interests quite so seriously. Such cases come up repeatedly and it is particularly annoying in Luxembourg’s case because Belgian courts have already reached findings in the matter.
Again warm congratulations and I think this House will take a good and important decision today with this report!
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