Madam President, the work of the European Coal and Steel Community in recent years has been guided by the knowledge that it would cease functioning this summer. It has been decided that the work of the ECSC should be discontinued: half a century is enough. In its final years of operation the ECSC functioned like a bank. It borrowed and lent money. The Commission was responsible for administering its finances, and it is now the Commission’s task to discontinue the bank’s work, call in its loans and pay off its debts. Its credit balance exceeds its debts. It would appear that there will be a surplus of approximately 1.1 billion euros after the ECSC has been wound up. In accordance with decisions taken earlier on, this surplus is to be invested profitably in the financial markets. Some of the assets are to be used to set up a separate Coal and Steel Fund, out of which money will be allocated for research in these areas, in accordance with the principles proposed by the Commission and approved by the Council. The yield from assets is intended to benefit the coal and steel sectors, which had to pay levies to the ECSC to fund its work. That is only reasonable. In this connection we have to remember that the money in the research fund was collected from the old Member States, and that it must first and foremost be used for research in these countries’ coal and steel sectors. However, if we consider how very important these sectors are in the economies of many of the applicant countries, it is only reasonable to call on the Commission to initiate talks with the old Member States in order that the new members might also share in the information obtained from research in this way. The Commission must invest the assets left over after the ECSC ceases to function to ensure it obtains the greatest possible return. If choices have to be made between safe investments and taking risks, then risks should be avoided. It is important to be able to predict what sort of return the Commission can expect on its investments. For the first time, in connection with this year’s accounts, we can have information on yield from the investment of the ECSC’s assets. In 2000 the average rate of yield was 4.72%. This sort of information is an important step in the right direction, but further steps have yet to be taken. With regard to subsequent years there is every good reason to state a benchmark target rate of return, on the basis of which the auditors can assess how successfully the target has been achieved. Similarly it will be important in the years to come to assess whether the ECSC’s old activities are being wound down in the way that was planned. The Commission intends to keep on more than thirty officials to be specifically employed in the distribution of the ECSC’s estate. That would seem to be a large number. In the years to come Parliament must monitor the situation to ensure that the assets left over from the European Coal and Steel Community are not used to maintain needless bureaucracy on the part of the Commission. The Court of Auditors has submitted a statement of assurance in which it recommends the granting of discharge. Parliament can endorse their opinion. – 2000 Discharge: General Budget – Section I

Political group: GUE-NGL