Brussels, 26/09/2002 (Agence Europe) - The adoption of the report by Paul Casaca (PES, Portugal) on inspection operations funded by European Parliament agricultural funds very slightly modifies the initial Commission proposal obliging Member States to draw up a nominal list of agricultural companies, together with proof of their payments and income. This list will be sent to the Commission and then made public. Pleased with the result of the vote, Mr Casaca declared that without it, "European citizens would not understand why transparency was required in the awarding of public procurement contracts in the EU, when it isn't possible, given the size of the large agro-food industry multinationals, to find out the amounts, methods and profits from export refunds".
The main body of the Commission proposal has been approved. Other amendments get rid of the threshold under which it is not necessary to carry out inspections and which take into account the special context in which rural development measures apply.
The European Parliament also adopted the report of Dietmut Theato (CDU), which approves the Draft Regulation on the funding of the Common Agricultural Policy. This proposal revises the basic regulation of 1999, extending the current 24-month period for the settlement of accounts to 36 months in which financial recoveries can be carried out. The European Parliament formulated its request during the budgetary discharge of 1999.
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