Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-12-02-Speech-4-019"
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"en.20041202.4.4-019"2
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"Mr President, for the tenth year running, as we have heard, the Court of Auditors has been unable to give a positive statement of assurance on the annual accounts of the European Union. As Conservatives we believe that this is a deplorable state of affairs and share the views of those who wanted to see the flaws in the financial system fully corrected by now. I suspect that in previous years there has been a lack of real priority, even though a Commission was dismissed as a result of some of these problems.
I welcome Mr Kallas, our new Commissioner, in his first appearance. If I remember correctly, he said at his hearing that he will make sure there is zero tolerance in cases of mismanagement and fraud. It is not enough simply to pay lip service to that.
Unlike the previous two speakers, who are here simply to be destructive and critical, we as Conservatives would like to see three priorities over the next five years. The first relates to the accounting system. We have to recognise that significant failings have occurred, but, as the Commissioner and the President of the Court have said, we have a new system coming in. We welcome this important step but we will be monitoring it very carefully to see exactly what it is going to deliver.
Secondly, on the question of whistleblowers, we have often received information – for example in the case of Eurostat – but the information was not followed up. We must have a system that allows people to come forward and say exactly what is going on.
Last and most important is the question of shared management. I and others thank the President of the Court for his excellent work, because he has focused on the real problem that the European Union faces. It is not so much a question of fraud and corruption but of being able to know where the monies go: whether it is audit certificates from the Member States or whether it happens to be an internal control system, as the President has suggested. We need to be able to ensure that in future we have a positive assessment of the statement of assurance – the DAS. We also need to ensure that we bring the Member States into the system and make the national administrations responsible, so that European monies are fully and properly accounted for."@en1
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