Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-06-06-Speech-1-100"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20050606.14.1-100"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
".
Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, I should first of all like to thank Mr Bösch for the excellent report and also for the excellent cooperation. There are two points of particular interest to which I should like to draw your attention this evening.
The first one is the responsibility of the Member States, which, let us not forget, manage 80% of all European aid, which gives us every right to ask more commitment of them, meaning, above all, extra efforts in reporting possible irregularities and cases of fraud. It also means reinforcing systems for monitoring and managing the structural funds. We have a long way to go in this respect. It also means that extra efforts have to be made in the area of reimbursement of funds paid either in excess or in error, which amount to the tidy sum of EUR 3 billion. In his speech, Mr Bösch made a point of explaining how this is possible, and Member States have to be galvanised into action, for they have not taken any responsibility to date. It is in this respect disappointing that the Member States where the most significant irregularities are reported are also the very Member States with the lowest reimbursement rates.
Secondly, with regard to cigarette fraud, as Mr Mulder pointed out, Parliament is a driving force in addressing this issue, which, indeed, formed an important part of the enquiry committee on transit fraud. Every container that disappears represents a value of EUR 1.5 million of income of the Member States and the EU, in other words the taxpayer. Next Wednesday, we will be questioning the Council and the Commission about the agreement that was concluded with tobacco giant Philip Morris who, for the next 12 years, will be paying USD 1.25 billion into an EU account. I congratulate the Commission and OLAF, the anti-fraud office, on the exemplary way they have worked together to bring this about. We need more agreements of this kind with other tobacco giants.
As Mr Mulder pointed out, the past referenda taught us that people have doubts about the European Union. Issues like these, including the Philip Morris issue, demonstrate at any rate that if Parliament, the Council and the Commission join forces, organised crime and mafia networks, which are, in fact, also used for other products like drugs, can certainly be tackled adequately.
Finally, if you, Mr Bösch, say that we should abolish export subsidies and for the reason that it is a scheme that is very susceptible to fraud, then you will know that you can rely on me as an ally. We should indeed put the issue of export subsidies on the political agenda and keep it there."@en1
|
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples