Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2012-05-10-Speech-4-079-000"
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"en.20120510.9.4-079-000"2
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"Mr President, I would like to thank all the Members who participated in this fruitful debate. Your contributions demonstrate the will of the discharge authority to contribute to more effective budget execution, aiming not only to meet policy objectives but also to ensure that financial support reaches those who need it most. This is a question of effectiveness, fairness and justice. Moreover, the European budget is the most concrete expression of the solidarity among European people and, therefore, it deserves the utmost care and commitment on the part of those managing and controlling it.
To conclude, I want to assure you that the Commission will address all other measures and actions included in the discharge resolution to be adopted today. Many of these measures have already been proposed in the review of the Financial Regulation and in the legal bases for the next financial framework.
The Commission will also invite all the other parties actively concerned to join our efforts and to share our objective of further improving the execution of the EU budget.
Improving the EU’s financial governance is a demanding task involving many stakeholders and financial actors. At the forefront are the citizens of Europe and the benefits they derive from EU-financed projects and programmes. Their interests and the protection of EU taxpayers’ money are the main drivers for our ambitions and our efforts to improve the financial management of the EU budget.
Next, we have the financial actors. The Commission is fully committed to endorsing its final responsibility regarding implementation of the budget. But the effective involvement of all financial actors, without exception, and their commitment to value for money and sound financial management are instrumental to further reducing the risk of errors. In this respect, more effort is needed, in particular, on the effectiveness of control and management systems, but also on the transparency and accountability of the European and national authorities in charge of ensuring optimal use of EU money.
That is why the Commission will endeavour to keep this Parliament, as discharge authority, fully informed of the execution of the European budget. It will therefore continue to provide the necessary information in the accounts and via the various reports announced during the hearings of the Commissioners responsible. Moreover, the Member States’ annual summaries, accompanied by an analysis and guidelines, will be transmitted in a user-friendly manner to the Committee on Budgetary Control in accordance with the provisions of Article 319 of the Treaty.
Several concrete questions were raised during this debate, and I would like to reply to them. Ms Ivanova raised the issue of outstanding commitments, and I can only agree that the outstanding commitments need to be substantially reduced. Therefore, the Commission has proposed an appropriate level of payments for the 2013 budget. Then Mr van de Camp raised the issue of external funds in relation to the Schengen Information System (SIS I and SIS II). You will know that many difficulties were encountered in the past in the development of this system. It is now operational and the Commission is carefully monitoring it to ensure it functions in an effective and reliable manner. The Commission is ready to report on it if requested to do so.
With regard to the funds for external borders, the Commission can execute the allocated budget when we receive claims from the Member States. I will pass your concerns on to my fellow Commissioner in charge of this matter.
Several of you, namely Mr Berman, Ms Hohlmeier, Mr Schmidt and Ms Jäätteenmäki, raised the issue of the status of the European Development Fund (EDF). In the financial framework for 2014-2020, the Commission has proposed keeping the same setting, i.e. outside the Union budget, but it has also made a clear commitment to assess all other options for the financial period post-2020.
There were, of course, many points made about the agencies, and I would like to say a few words regarding the Food Safety Authority, in response to Mr Bové. The Commission regrets the appointment of Ms Diána Bánáti as an executive director of the International Life of Science Institute, as that position is clearly incompatible with her role at the EU Food Safety Authority. The Commission will decide with the Council on the next steps to be taken to replace Ms Bánáti.
For the future, I want to inform you that the interinstitutional working group on traditional agencies, in which Parliament is participating, has addressed the need to develop a consistent policy on preventing conflicts of interest for staff, advisers, experts and board members. This work has to be done in the working group and I hope it will produce an appropriate solution."@en1
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