Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-04-21-Speech-3-016"
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"en.20100421.3.3-016"2
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"Mr President, we have here today an important task to perform for the discharge of the Seventh, Eighth and Ninth European Development Funds (EDFs) and the part of the Tenth EDF corresponding to 2008. This is, moreover, a critical time, when major institutional changes are taking place and also when various global disasters have shown that European aid is increasingly important. They have also shown that it needs to be coordinated, it needs to be effective and, above all, it needs to be transparent, so that all Europeans continue to maintain their support and their positive view of this aid.
In addition, this is a crucial time in institutional terms. The implementation of the Treaty of Lisbon and the creation of the office of High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, as well as the European External Action Service, provide us with a dual opportunity. On the one hand, we have the chance to improve substantially the application and effectiveness of our external aid; on the other, however, there are also major question marks, because we are concerned at the high risk that the growing effectiveness that we have achieved with difficulty for European development aid, in conjunction with the Court of Auditors and the Commission, may be undermined by further reorganisation, ambiguity in decision making and the chain of responsibility, and, especially, by fragmented management. We need greater certainty from the Commission to avoid such setbacks, and therefore we need clear, specific information as soon as possible on what the new system will be like and how it will affect development aid.
First, with regard to the current financial year, I would like to express the need for the EDF to be fully incorporated into the budget – that, I repeat again, is our demand – in order to enhance its consistency, transparency and effectiveness and to strengthen its oversight system. We therefore insist that it is vital for the Commission, together with Parliament, to keep this demand firmly in mind for the next financial framework.
It is also important to strengthen joint planning so as to achieve greater concentration, coordination and vision in the work. Consequently, we need to focus the Tenth EDF on a limited number of sectors.
It is important to avoid the adverse effects of proliferation, although we must be very careful not to underestimate the capacity and effectiveness of non-governmental organisations on the ground, as they are effective. It is a complex exercise in squaring the circle, but we hope that we can take it forward, together with the Commission.
We are also pleased that in this financial year, the statement of assurance has been positive, except for the method of estimating the provision for the Commission’s costs. Then there are no material errors in the underlying transactions, although we are still finding – and therefore need to improve – a high incidence of non-quantifiable errors in both budget-support commitments and payments.
We are also hugely concerned that the Court of Auditors has again been unable to obtain important documentation on payments amounting to 6.7% of annual expenditure relating to cooperation with international organisations. We need a definitive method and an
calendar to ensure that information and documentation on this joint financing is not undermined by this lack of transparency.
In addition, we consider financial implementation to have been satisfactory, since the Seventh EDF has been closed and its balance transferred to the Ninth EDF. We also welcome the speedy implementation of the Tenth EDF since 1 July 2008, and we hope that the Commission’s efforts will culminate in the settlement of the remaining old and dormant payments.
Resources are another of the important items. We are also concerned, although there has been some discussion, that the resources of the Ninth and Tenth EDFs managed by the European Investment Bank (EIB) are not covered by the statement of assurance and should therefore be the subject of regular reports by the EIB."@en1
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