Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-03-29-Speech-1-088"
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"en.20040329.8.1-088"2
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"Mr President, it is exceedingly rare for me to find myself in agreement with large parts of a report drawn up for this Parliament. However, the Bösch report contains a veritable litany of the failings of the Commission either to create an accounting system even approaching adequacy or to tackle the fraud that is inherent in everything the EU does. He quotes a colossal EUR 2.12 billion – or, in real money, something like GBP 1.5 billion – as the total amount of fraud listed in the Commission's annual report for 2002. From training seminars for senior civil servants that were never held, to mass defrauding of the CAP, this eye-opening record of failure is there for all to see.
The report notes that, incredibly, in 50% of the cases of agricultural fraud, it was impossible to identify the products concerned. Under these circumstances, I also share the report's concern at the shortcomings of the work of OLAF.
However, the Bösch report provides a list of blindingly obvious things that could and should have been done many years ago to make this leaking ship more sound. It is self-evident that a leaking ship will continue to leak and, indeed, eventually sink if it takes on new passengers. As the accession countries join the EU on 1 May, I put it to you that the EU's finances are in a huge mess and that the addition of ten new countries will simply make that mess even bigger and may well cause the ship to founder.
This report very effectively demonstrates the failure of a European Union that is hopelessly mired in fraud and corruption and lacks the will to do anything about it. Any nation that continues to plough money into this black morass is very badly letting down the taxpayers who foot the bill."@en1
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