Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-11-26-Speech-4-022"

Predicate	Value (sorted: default)
rdf:type	lpv_eu:Speech2
dcterms:Date	"2009-11-26"^^xsd:date2
dcterms:Is Part Of	lp_eu:Presentation of the Court of Auditors’ annual report - 2008 (debate)2
dcterms:Language	"en"^^xsd:language2
lpv:document identification number	"en.20091126.3.4-022"2
lpv:hasSubsequent	lp_eu:2009-11-26-Speech-4-0232
lpv:speaker	lp:Kay Swinburne2
lpv:spoken text	"Mr President, I welcome the report of the Court of Auditors and welcome a clean set of accounts without an adverse report on these accounts for the EU for the first time, especially after so many years of falling foul of this important process and a mission that would have put any private company in breach of multiple EU directives. However, I would like to concentrate on the area of continued significant weakness, namely the area of structural and cohesion funds. While the Commission may consider it is an achievement that only 11% of the largest part of the budget – cohesion spending – contained errors, I consider it a shocking fact that it has been determined that almost EUR 5 billion of a EUR 46 billion budget should never have been paid out, as described by the Court of Auditors. I have to say that my region of Wales, already in receipt of structural funds from that EUR 46 billion pot, could happily have spent and accounted for the spending of that additional EUR 5 billion. Wales has not had to return any funds for mis-spending, despite the UK as a whole not receiving a clean bill of health. Errors seem to be at the level of implementing institutions, and therefore I ask that the European Parliament and Commission call for the individual Member States to provide a thorough audit for the funds received. In Wales, the Welsh Assembly government, via the various institutions, administers EU structural and cohesion funds and, therefore, to conduct a formal audit could not be too onerous. However, currently, projects which were funded some seven years ago by the EU are only now undergoing financial audit by the Court of Auditors. I am not sure what this achieves. We need an annual contemporary signing-off which can identify errors and ensure compliance to the highest standard. When taxpayers’ money is at stake, as it is across the EU in the case of the regional budget, standards of accountability can never be too high."@en1
lpv:spokenAs	member; Delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Union for the Mediterranean (2009-09-16--2012-03-27)3,3 substitute; Delegation for relations with Switzerland and Norway and to the EU-Iceland Joint Parliamentary Committee and the European Economic Area (EEA) Joint Parliamentary Committee (2009-09-16--2014-06-30)3,3 substitute; Delegation for relations with the Palestinian Legislative Council (2009-10-19--2014-06-30)3,3 substitute; AFET (2009-09-07--2010-06-23)3,3 unknown; Conservative Party (2009-07-14--2014-06-30)3,3 member; ECON (2009-07-16--2012-01-18)3,3 member; Special Committee on the Financial, Economic and Social Crisis (2009-10-08--2011-07-31)3,3 member; PECH (2009-07-14--2014-06-30)3,3
lpv:unclassifiedMetadata	"Kay Swinburne (ECR )."1
lpv:videoURI	<go to Events_and_structure europarl>2

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