Brussels, 22/04/2008 (Agence Europe) - As expected, the European Parliament decided, on Tuesday 22 April, in Strasbourg, to grant qualified discharge to the European Commission on implementation of the 2006 budget. The Commission undertook to regularly report on progress made in the management of structural funds and external actions. By granting discharge on the EP budget of the same year, the EP welcomes the work on setting in place the statute for parliamentary assistants that should take effect at the same time as the statute for MEPs. Furthermore, the EP has granted discharge to all other EU institutions (Council, Committee of the Regions, …) as well as to Community agencies.
The discharge procedure allows Parliament to provide a political assessment of the way in which the budget was spent and to formulate recommendations for improvement. The EP gave discharge to the Commission for execution of the 2006 budget with 582 votes to 77 and 18 abstentions. With the adoption of the report by Dan Jorgensen (PES, Denmark) on this dossier, the EP welcomes the commitment taken by the Commission to provide a monthly report to the parliamentary committee in charge of implementing follow-up for the discharge for 2006. Every month, a European commissioner will present progress made in his/her fields of competence. For example, this will concern national annual declarations and summaries, external action and the implementation of the action plan on structural action. This is the main change introduced in plenary to the initial report voted in budgetary control committee.
Structural funds. MEPs consider as “major progress” the Commission's commitment to “correct all individual errors found in the Court's annual report on 2006”, with the commitment to make 100% corrections in all cases of “serious breaches of public procedure”. The EP mainly calls on the Commission to present “objective, clear and full information on its capacity to recover unduly paid monies”.
National management declarations. MEPs welcome the firm political support that the Commission gives to the national declarations of member states intended to certify the correct management of Community funds. Such management declarations are now in force in four member states (Netherlands, Denmark, United Kingdom and Sweden). Nonetheless, the EP deplores the Commission's hitherto “tacit acceptance of member states' collective irresponsibility” (with the exception of the above four countries) concerning the EU's financial management.
External actions. The Parliament considers that EU external aid should be “more visible on the ground” and “more accessible to audit activities” in cases of joint management of aid, in particular with the United Nations.
Statute of assistants making good progress. Discharge on the implementation of the 2006 budget is granted by a large majority (597 votes in favour, 50 against and 40 abstentions). With the adoption of the report by Javier Pomés Ruiz (EPP-ED, Spain), the EP supports the firm commitment taken by its president, Hans-Gert Pöttering, to ensure that the statute of assistants, to be proposed by the Commission and approved by Council, takes effect at the same time as the Members' statute. It points out that it takes flexibility and mobility to assist MEPs in their work and that the new statute for assistants “should set minimum standards for pay and social rights in conformity with applicable European legislation”. The resolution specifies that “no member of Members' families” may be employed.
Voluntary pension fund. The House states its “surprise” at the recommendation by the Conference of Presidents of 13 March 2008 that MEPs be allowed to acquire new pension entitlements under the voluntary pension fund following entry into force of the new Members' statute. The discharge resolutions for 2004 and 2005 had stressed that this fund's activities should be limited, from the start of the next term, to making payments for entitlements already acquired. For this reason, the European Parliament insists that the working group (of the Bureau) on the Members' statute should respect the decisions taken by Parliament.
During the morning debate, Rapporteur Dan Jorgensen stressed that the procedure had revealed positive aspects of the budget for 2006. Thus, for agriculture, progress is noted in controlling the use of funds. Also, the Commission, he said, has taken serious note of last year's criticism on research funds. The Commission has taken initiatives relating to transparency (publication of the names of beneficiaries of some funds). The EP was critical in two areas, recalled Mr Jorgensen. In the field of structural funds, the Court of Auditors asserted that 12% at least of the total amount reimbursed to countries should not have been paid back, which, the rapporteur states , is “unacceptable”.
He pointed out that the Commission then adopted an action plan with precise deadlines for resolving problems (heightened controls, recovery of ill spent funding, measures to prevent mistakes happening again in the future, etc). All these “fine words” are not, however, enough. The Commission should bear in mind the progress accomplished in implementation of the action plan. In the field of EU external actions, the Commission has pledged to strengthen the transparency of Community funds (mainly those intended for Iraq).
“We are not accountants. We have a political role” to play, said Javier Pomés Ruiz, who is rapporteur on the EP budget discharge. One must ensure that budgetary targets have been reached. He said the EP had improved the situation of parliamentary assistants and specified that the cost of using three seats was reduced from €203 million in 2002 to €155 million in 2007 (i.e. -24% in five years). Hans-Peter Martin (NA, Austria) said that the Commission had failed in its decentralisation and externalisation of tasks policy and regretted that its critical remarks on the agencies were censured by the budgetary control committee.
Siim Kallas, the European commissioner responsible for combating fraud, promised that the Commission would keep the EP regularly informed of progress made in the management of Community funds. He thus proposed that a Commission member come regularly to the Parliament to report on one of the three key matters of this year's discharge: increasing assurance from member states in shared management, implementing the structural funds, and controlling funding of external actions.
On the subject of structural actions, Mr Kallas said “we are continuing to identify and take action to reduce the high number of errors in implementing structural actions”. “We are trying to protect the interests of the taxpayers as best we can”, the Commissioner said. He pointed out that the Commission is willing to suspend payments and to apply financial corrections in member states that do not do what is necessary to control spending. Member states have provided annual summaries on declarations and audits in shared management for 2007, and where they have not, legal measures are underway under Article 226 of the Treaty, Siim Kallas said. By way of conclusion, the Commission vice-president added: “We shall continue to work to convince the public that their money is in good hands when it is spent from the EU budget”.
Ingeborg Grässle (EPP-ED, Germany) took the view that it was illusory to believe an assistants' statute would solve all problems. Paulo Casaca (PES, Portugal) said such a statute would make it possible to put an end to “fraudulent behaviour”. Payments to MEP assistants must be made by the EP administration, he stressed. He also urged for reform of the pension and travel allowance rules. This process of reform in assistant payment rules must not be hindered, he concluded, sounding a note of caution for members of the EPP-ED. (L.C.)