mr president the discharge is one of the most important acts that we are responsible for
we are effectively being called to approve the way in which the european taxpayer's money has been spent and we have to base our decision on the report by the european court of auditors
the auditors report for two thousand and eight only clears ten of the budget
the rest is affected by different levels of errors
would any board of directors approve the management of a company in such a state of affairs
of course not
the situation has been the same for the last fifteen years and this parliament has always granted discharge on the basis of the improvement in the use of european union funds
i am sorry to say that what the taxpayers want to know is if their money has gone to the right person for the right purpose and for the right amount
we should be making the decision on discharge in view of this
over the years the only progress achieved by the commission parliament and the council is the shifting of responsibility to member states
while it is true that programmes are implemented in member states the institution to which the european taxpayers entrust their money is the european commission
this is the institution that releases the money and that should therefore be performing the necessary controls before doing so
to make matters worse the commission and parliament are now discussing a tolerable risk of error
why tolerate any error the new name for irregularity when the financial complexity of the european union is that of a medium-sized bank
last year the council discharge was postponed from april to november because this parliament said it was not satisfied with their financial management even if the auditors did not criticise their financial management
when the situation had not changed by november this parliament took the decision to discharge the council
now again all cannons are directed to the council and postponement is being proposed
are we being serious about our responsibility or are we playing politics here
is discharge an interinstitutional game as has been said in the past
can taxpayers tolerate this game anymore
this is about their money
colleagues i call upon all of you to exercise your responsibility with due care and withhold discharge to the commission to parliament to the council to the european development fund and to the court of auditors that does not publish the declaration of financial interests until all of these institutions give proof of sound financial management
