Strasbourg, 17/03/2000 (Agence Europe) - As we have already discussed (see yesterday's EUROPE, p.13), the Conference of the Presidents of the European Parliament's political groups discussed with the President of the Parliament Nicole Fontaine the preliminary report put together by the EU's Court of auditors on the spending by the EP's political groups in 1998 (spending for information campaigns and administrative expenditure). According to a press release from the President of the Parliament, this preliminary report was handed in the previous day to Mrs. Fontaine by Aunus Salmi, member of the Court of Auditors, and the President of the Parliament discussed it "in an in-depth manner", with the President of each political group.
Following the meeting of the Conference of Presidents, Nicole Fontaine announced "it appears that in the present draft, this preliminary report does not present the conditions of transparency desired, as the remarks made are general, without specifying the actors to which it refers and the scope" of the behaviour reported (as we outlined, certain irregularities are denounced in this document, but without naming the groups in question). The press release indicates that under these conditions, Mrs. Fontaine "told the President of the Court of her desire for total transparency and asked him to complete the report so that, as quickly as possible, the adversary procedures (audita altera parte) may begin" (the Court of Auditors procedures foresee, before the drafting of the final report, an answer from the institution concerned, ten weeks after the presentation of the preliminary report).