Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, we have a number of difficult decisions to take this week. Controlling the Executive is one of Parliament’s main rights and that right centres on budgetary control. However, it is difficult to grant discharge for a budget which is two years old and this problem is exacerbated by the fact that it was not the responsibility of the present Commission but of its predecessor, a Commission which resigned because it failed to take its responsibilities seriously enough. Our yardstick must therefore be the central issue of what the new Commission’s attitude is towards responsibility. A good example of this, in my view, is the discharge for the Development Funds. Our Committee had confidential information on mismanagement and irregularities which amounted to suspicion of corruption. In response to our questions, we received only inadequate information, for which we had to wait a long time. The majority of the Committee therefore decided to suspend discharge in order to obtain more information. In the meantime, however, we have good news to impart. Together with representatives from the Commission and the parliamentary Committee on Development we have drawn up an action plan, which can be implemented by 15 May. I am therefore able to correct my report in this respect, i.e. we shall replace my report with this specific action plan and propose that we suspend discharge until 15 May and we shall then grant discharge on 15 May on the basis of the Commission report on the action plan. I think that this development clearly demonstrates the direction that we need to take. The Commission and Parliament must work together and must create greater transparency in relation to the budget and its implementation. Unfortunately, I was forced to include another postponement in my report, this time in relation to the Economic and Social Committee. There are again problems with the Economic and Social Committee in relation to travel costs and mission expenses. It took the Committee over 15 months to refer justified cases of suspicion of fraud to OLAF. Discharge therefore had to be suspended pending the results of the OLAF investigation. There is another problem with the Economic and Social Committee, the problem of buildings. We are still paying rent for the Ardenne and Ravenstein buildings. We are also paying rent for the Belliard building and Parliament must pay for its new building. This means that European taxpayers are currently paying rent for three buildings. We want to exert pressure here to ensure that the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions move into the Belliard building as quickly as possible. However, we have not moved for a postponement in this area because we hope that a satisfactory solution can be found and that we can grant discharge for the buildings in the 1999 budget with no further pressure needed. However, I should just like to say on the subject of buildings that better management is needed at European level. There are similar problems with the European Court of Justice. The Court of Auditors has drafted a special report on this subject, which will be reflected in the 1999 discharge procedure. As rapporteur, I should like to suggest that we need better cooperation between the various institutions at European level as far as the management of buildings and rents is concerned and that we should learn from each other’s mistakes so that, here too, we use the European taxpayers’ money in a responsible manner. As a new Member, allow me to point out that there are serious shortcomings in this area. As I have little time left, I should like to give a very succinct and concentrated presentation of the rest of my report. We are able to propose that the European Court of Justice and the European Court of Auditors be granted discharge. Both institutions gave highly satisfactory answers to the criticisms in my report and we have had prompt and comprehensive replies to our questions and comments. We are also able to propose that the Dublin agency and the Thessaloniki agency be granted discharge. However, we would like to see the contradictory procedure shortened for the agencies. We welcome the fact that the agencies have decided to carry out an evaluation and we expect this evaluation to be submitted by December 2000. Overall, as a new member, I should like to reiterate my belief that the procedure for the 1998 discharge represented an important step forward in reinforcing the taxpayers’ confidence in the European institutions.

Political group: Verts-ALE