Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-11-16-Speech-3-233"
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"en.20051116.18.3-233"2
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".
The honourable Member is of course right to acknowledge that although the European Court of Auditors’ report concerns the European Union accounts, 80% of the spending under that is in fact implemented by Member States through agriculture and structural funds. However, we must be take care not to simply deploy that argument in case we are perceived to be complacent in the face of the challenge we face. I would simply reiterate the point the Foreign Secretary made earlier, which is that, in the hands of those who are hostile towards the very idea of the European Union, the failure to sign off the accounts for the eleventh year is ammunition which we should certainly endeavour not to provide in the years ahead.
It is certainly true that action needs to be taken at Member State level rather than simply at the bureaucratic level within Brussels, but that should not in any way provide an excuse for the action that other Members have called for not being taken both in Brussels and at Member State level.
All of us with an interest in building and sustaining support for the European Union and its efforts amongst European citizens have a strong vested interest in seeing this long-standing problem being resolved. That will involve action at the Member State level, but it will also involve the kind of important work that we took forward at Ecofin and which, I am glad to say, has the support of the European Commission."@en1
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