Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-03-09-Speech-1-196"
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"en.20090309.21.1-196"2
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"Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, the principle of effective internal control is one of the most important budgetary principles that the Commission must observe when implementing the budget and utilising the funds. The European Court of Auditors (ECA) and the European Parliament have been calling for effective, efficient control of the budgetary resources for years, and numerous attempts and suggestions have been made by the ECA, in particular, seeking to ensure that the Commission uses these resources appropriately and economically. Nevertheless, the ECA has not been able to give the Commission a positive statement of assurance for years. I need only remind the House of the occurrences in connection with irregularities in the implementation of the Leonardo programme a few years ago, and other support areas that have always been very susceptible to irregularities and perhaps even to fraud.
In January 2006, the Commission adopted an action plan towards an integrated internal control framework, again with the aim of obtaining a positive statement of assurance from the ECA. As stated in our report, there is no doubt that the Commission has made some serious efforts to develop the action plan. However, it is quite clear to Parliament that the implementation of the measures is a long way behind schedule. Therefore, the Commission must speed up the implementation of the envisaged measures considerably so that positive effects can be seen in the ECA’s Annual Report in the foreseeable future and also so that we Members of the European Parliament can grant a budget discharge with a clear conscience.
I do not want to go into the details of the still unsatisfactory implementation of the measures, but I would emphasise that efficient control activities are now all the more necessary considering that, in connection with the economic recovery package, almost all the criteria for the implementation of support measures have been significantly relaxed, including in the interests of providing rapid assistance. I need only remind you of the planned relaxation in the Structural Funds and of the significant changes in the eligibility principles with regard to the EU Globalisation Fund.
We know, of course, that all the support measures, particularly in the field of the Structural Funds, are implemented in close cooperation with the Member States, which is absolutely vital in order to guarantee the validity of the expenditure, but also generates substantial problems when it comes to control by the Commission.
We have known for years that the Commission cannot always approach such controls in the Member States as it would perhaps like and as dictated by the budgetary principles and the ideas of the ECA. Parliament has great difficulties in getting a final picture, particularly in the case of the annual summaries and management declarations at national level, which the Commission presented to us for the first time on 15 February 2008, as the documents do not keep to uniform criteria.
Therefore, our report – which was also adopted unanimously by the Committee on Budgetary Control – calls for continuous pressure to be exerted on the Member States to provide data that is both complete and comprehensible. It is my fervent hope that the Commission will continue to take seriously its task of introducing the internal control framework in future. Thank you very much."@en1
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