Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-11-25-Speech-4-018"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20101125.4.4-018"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
"Mr President, in the Committee on Petitions, in other words, the committee that deals with citizens’ complaints, respect for EU legislation is absolutely key. Citizens come to us because national or local authorities do not comply with EU legislation, for example, with regard to the protection of human health or the environment. We need only consider the many complaints we have received concerning the long-standing waste crisis in Campania, despite a clear ruling by the European Court of Justice, and concerning the freezing of funds. Nothing has really been done to solve this problem. Both the citizens and the protected environment are suffering. This is what we called ‘fortunate Campania’ – oh dear! The Commission must immediately utilise all means at its disposal in this regard.
The treaty assigns the Commission a key role. That is, to monitor the Member States’ compliance with EU legislation. In the committee, we therefore pay close attention to how the Commission deals with infringements of the rules. In light of this, I welcome Mrs Lichtenberger’s report. She makes it absolutely clear that it is not good enough simply to send complaints about the Member States’ infringements back to them for them to resolve themselves. They are the ones that the complaints are about. This leaves citizens utterly high and dry.
In this connection, I would like to compliment the European Ombudsman for having carried out a study on his own initiative precisely on the Commission’s new way of dealing with complaints and infringements, particularly the way the Commission records, or perhaps simply does not record, complaints against Member States for disregarding Community law. The Ombudsman also has the competence to give an opinion on the substance of the matter when the Commission is accused of not having followed up on the infringements, even if, in the final instance, it is, of course, the Court that is to decide the matter.
In any case, it will constitute progress if we now adopt the proposal in Mrs Nedelcheva’s report to have a proper law on EU administration procedures, which we finally have a basis for in Article 298 of the Treaty of Lisbon.
It is good that the Ombudsman’s annual report shows many signs of improvements, but it is still worrying that over a third of the complaints relate to a lack of transparency and access to documents and information. In this regard, it is disgraceful that both the Commission and several Member States are trying to protect large lobbyists from the citizens by means of something that clearly looks like abuse of the data protection rules.
One appalling example in this regard is provided by the Ombudsman’s Special Report on Porsche and the correspondence concerning protection of CO
limits for cars. Does anyone here believe that a small or medium-sized enterprise was consulted by the Commission concerning access to letters, or that the Commission wanted to delay the case for 15 months for the sake of a small enterprise? Of course not! It was because it was Porsche and, of course, perhaps also because it was Mr Verheugen. The Ombudsman’s Special Report tells a longer story and I would like to recommend that everyone reads both Mrs Paliadeli’s excellent report and the Ombudsman’s report itself. It is great entertainment. It will open your eyes time and again. The most serious aspect of this case, however, is the Commission’s lack of loyal cooperation with the Ombudsman. This is an important report. Parliament needs to come up with a clear statement on this matter. I would like to thank the Ombudsman and Mrs Paliadeli."@en1
|
| lpv:unclassifiedMetadata |
"2"1
|
| lpv:videoURI |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples