Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-11-18-Speech-2-052"
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"en.20031118.2.2-052"2
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"Mr President I should like to thank President Prodi for coming here today. This is the fourth time running I have been here to listen to his presentation. Indeed, it is the fourth year running that his Commission has failed to get a positive statement of assurance from the European Court of Auditors for its accounts, and the ninth time running that the Commission, as an entity, has failed to do so.
I am aware that no one in Mr Prodi's Commission accepts political responsibility for anything, but am sure there are members of the Commission who have political antennae and can sense the mood of Parliament when it comes to the problems found at Eurostat and in the accounting system. I personally consider that Mr Prodi has weakened his position and the Commission's position by stepping into Italian domestic politics, which is something I am sure he should not be doing. I think he makes the Commission slightly more impotent by admitting that Commissioners currently have no political responsibility. With Eurostat he has shut the stable door too late, a long time after the horses have bolted, and is looking to blame the messengers rather than resolving the problem.
However, I would like to talk very briefly about the whistleblowers' charter, which is something I know Mr Prodi mentioned in the Committee on Budgetary Control's meeting earlier today, because his Commission's biggest failing has been the way it has treated some of the whistleblowers. The Commission has been a kangaroo court. It has suspended those who raise questions and problems and has actually rewarded those who have been involved in covering these things up.
I also want to be positive, because I know that ten new Commissioners will be coming into your midst as of May 2004. As well as wanting to see an independent OLAF, I would like the Commission to consider the possibility of one of those Commissioners assuming responsibility for budgetary control and the internal audit service of the Commission, because the sooner it is separated from the budgetary function itself, the sooner we may start to make headway as regards these problems."@en1
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