Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-02-11-Speech-3-164"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20040211.6.3-164"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spoken text |
".
I should like to begin by thanking Members of Parliament for their comments on what I said at the start of this debate, as well as for all other remarks made about this important issue. I would like to pick up on a few points at the closure of this debate in view of the importance of the subject.
Mr Jonckheer said that this is a golden opportunity to show citizens what we are here for. He is right because, as many participants in this debate have said, it is the small people who get hurt first and who lose their pension rights or their jobs. We must make clear that the European Union is taking the necessary steps in order to put a halt to this kind of practice and the forthcoming parliamentary elections perhaps offer a good opportunity to do so.
Mr Jonckheer also asked whether directors will be up to the task. That is a very relevant question. Are the measures taken by the Commission, the Council of Ministers and Parliament sufficient? As Mr Lehne and Lord Inglewood have said, one cannot give any guarantees. It is impossible to give guarantees that something of this nature will not occur – guarantees only exist for vacuum cleaners! That is something we cannot do, but we can make it very difficult for people with ill intentions seeking to continue their work. We are a little bit between the devil and the deep blue sea, on the one hand between Mr Jonckheer, who says we should make sure this sort of thing does not happen any more and, on the other hand, Mr Della Vedova, Mr Lehne and Lord Inglewood, who say it is impossible to completely avoid criminal fraud. However, we can make it harder.
The actions undertaken by the Commission and by the European Union do indeed make it much harder for this sort of thing to happen again. I hope that all Members of this Parliament will join the Commission in making clear to the electorate that the Commission is doing its job and that Members of the European Parliament are also doing their jobs in order to prevent this sort of thing from happening again.
Firstly, I should like to say something on a truly important aspect of this case: offshore tax havens and special purpose vehicles. The full complexity of the situation in the case of Parmalat, as regards the use of offshore financial centres and special purpose vehicles, still has to be clarified. It is clear that the time has come to introduce some real order here. All these types of special operations ought to be subject to three requirements: firstly, they ought to be listed in company accounts; secondly, the company concerned should explain its purpose – why does that company have these special purpose vehicles? – and thirdly, the group auditor ought to be made responsible for checking that what is supposed to be there really is there. There must be greater control over these highly complex corporate structures.
Along the same lines, the Commission will consider increased disclosure requirements in the context of the amendments to the fourth and seventh company law directives. These amendments are due to be adopted by September 2004. The question of the transparency of corporate vehicles and other legal arrangements is under consideration by the Commission, both internally within the European Union and also in the wider international context.
Secondly, I would like to say something on auditing. It might well be asked whether there is a systemic failure of the audit function; although I believe that the auditor has an important role to play in ensuring proper financial reporting, it is not the only factor under scrutiny. It is important to take a broader picture of the responsibilities for financial reporting and the functioning of capital markets. Apart from auditors, we should also question the role of management, of non-executive directors, of corporate governance arrangements, of credit rating agencies – as mentioned this afternoon- and of investment banks.
With regard to auditors, I believe there is a need for a stronger backbone to resist improper accounting and undue commercial pressure by the audited entities. Several measures that the Commission will propose in its forthcoming directive should help auditors keep their backs straight; for example, independence requirements, strong public oversight, communication with audit committees and serious external quality reviews.
We may also ask whether there is an accounting issue. Apparently, the existing legislation in Italy on annual accounts requires neither a cashflow statement, nor much information about financial derivatives and their impact on the financial position. The fair value accounting directive, adopted in 2001, has been in force since 1 January 2004. That directive requires detailed disclosure about financial instruments such as the fair value of financial instruments, information about their extent and nature, and a table showing the movements in fair value. Annual accounts, prepared on the basis of international accounting standards, which require a cashflow statement and also fair values, would have better reflected Parmalat's true financial position and might have prevented fraud, at least on the scale which occurred.
Then there is the question of corporate governance. Paragraph 7 of the resolution states that the political guidelines of the action plan on corporate governance are based mainly on transparency and disclosure. That is perfectly true, there are important transparency and disclosure initiatives, but the action plan also contains significant initiatives that are introduced via directives: it suggests appropriate and proportionate binding rules, for example on shareholders' rights and also on directors' liability.
Regarding independent directors, the action plan announces a recommendation aimed at fostering their role, at least on a comply-or-explain basis. It is therefore true that disclosure is key. But consultations on the action plan have shown that it is doubtful whether an approach based on binding rules on the composition and role of board committees would make much sense.
Lastly, to wind up this important debate, I should like to quote Mr Fava, who said that we need 'global rules'. I agree. It is not so easy to achieve global rules. Mention was made of the WTO: that is a possibility. The OECD does a lot of work in this area and we should be careful not to get ahead of ourselves. I should therefore like to support the OECD as much as possible in its work."@en1
|
| lpv:unclassifiedMetadata |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples