Brussels, 23/02/2001 (Agence Europe) - The question of the future of the Union's Development NGO Liaison Committee (Clong), that will possibly be discussed next Monday by the General Affairs Council (see EUROPE of 12/13 February, p.13), has been taken off the agenda. The representatives of the Member States (Coreper) felt, on Wednesday, that the contacts made by the Commission, the Presidency and certain Member States with Clong's President Joachim Lindau and its general secretary, James Mackie, opened up the prospect of a solution to the problem of bad financial management. The latter was denounced by the interim Ernst & Young audit report. Such solutions could prevent Clong's disappearance. This solution would consist in making sure that, in future, the Clong has necessary resources for covering 15% of the funding of its activities through subsidies other than Community subsidies in respect of the rules of procedure and good financial management. It will allow the Clong to proceed to a staggered reimbursement of the sums that have been badly managed, given that in this affair it has never been a question of fraud. Under these circumstances, Germany, which had called for the issue to be placed on the agenda no longer saw the need to refer the matter to the Council. The Swedish Presidency endorsed this point of view but considered it appropriate for Coreper to be regularly informed on further developments. The final report from the audit firm, which takes into account the response from Clong to the interim report, has now been forwarded to the European Commission. The latter is currently examining it, a decisive stage for definitively establishing the amounts to be recovered.