Strasbourg, 11/04/2000 (Agence Europe) - Discussions at the European Parliament were tense, not only during the committee on Monday evening but also in plenary debate on Tuesday, on the reports relating to granting 1998 discharge to the Commission and to the European Parliament. Debates focused on the explanatory statement that accompanied the Stauner Resolution on postponing Commission discharge, and the possible adjournment of discharge for the European Parliament (on which the groups are seeking an agreement before voting on Thursday).
The EPP is - "for the first time in its history" - calling for Parliament discharge to be deferred, said James Elles. The British MEP considers this postponement is justified by questions of substance and not by "parallelism" with the attitude for the Commission budget. But Mr Elles' position does not make unanimity within the EPP, said Spanish MEP Pomes Ruiz, in favour of discharge, as proposed by the Kuhne Report (Socialist). The Greens Group, for its part, calls for discharge to be postponed: "the EP is the younger brother of the Commission with regards administrative practices", denounced Green member Heidi Hautala, calling for "Kinnock-type reform" in Parliament. The Liberals seem divided on the matter.
Helmut Kuhne denounced the EPP's position, stating that some groups "with dirtier hands than others" are using discharge procedure for other purposes. The EPP is the most criticised group in the report by the Court of Auditors. James Elles defends his position, insisting on the problems raised by the Court of Auditors and on the need to "clean up one's own back yard" so that criticism towards the other institutions keep their value. For Helmut Kuhne, the same criteria should not be applied to the EP and to the Commission, but "the same criteria do not necessarily give the same result". Socialist leader Enrique Baron Crespo seems more conciliatory than Helmut Kuhne and more willing to accept certain adjustments to the report.
As far as the Stauner Report on the Commission's 1998 budget is concerned, the problem is not that of deferring discharge till the month of May - as nearly everyone supports - but of the explanatory statement. It is under the rapporteur's responsibility alone, is not submitted to the vote and does not have any consequence on the discharge vote, but its scope is political (and good for media coverage). The fact that it is very different from the resolution adopted by majority in the Committee on Budgets poses a problem. The Socialists call for it to be withdrawn. Eluned Morgan (PES) denounced this explanatory statement "which is not shared by all Cocobu" as "hysterical and over severe". The rapporteur, Ms Gabriele Stauner (EPP, Germany) defended her explanatory statement, which she had added to and drafted. For Ms Stauner, the older affairs (Echo, Med) on which she insists "have a link to the 1998 budgetary procedure, even if they date back further. If the new Commission is not responsible for their birth, it is in the way the burden of the past is settled". Ms Stauner believes the "new beginning is taking a long time coming". Although she alone can withdraw the disputed explanatory statement (see yesterday's EUROPE, p.13), the chairperson of Cocobu, Diemut Theato (EPP) declared during the meeting of this committee on Monday evening that she did not plan to use this prerogative. James Elles supported Ms Stauner and the "excellence of her explanatory statement". Jean-Louis Bourlanges, on the other hand, from the same group, was highly critical of it, "supported by only Theato, Bosch, Blak and Stauner". With the support of 37 other EPP members, he submitted an amendment which distances itself from the explanatory statement, and specifies that this statement is the rapporteur's responsibility alone. Jean-Louis Bourlanges believes that "one does not make such an attack against a Commission to which one gave one's confidence four months earlier".
"In its requests, the EP only supports us on the road to political renewal of European policy", said Commissioner Schreyer, in a conciliatory fashion. She specified that the Commission was going to answer criticism by 15 May, and gave several first elements of its response. She nonetheless called on the EP to also carry out reforms: "the Commission is opening up to reform, but it would be good for all institutions to open up to the same reforms".