Mr President, we are all very well aware that we are dealing with a task – the discharge of the budget – which, as stated in the Treaty, falls within the exclusive competence of Parliament. I would also like to point out that at the moment the jobs of thousands of officials in the Commission and other institutions are at stake, but this is also an opportunity to highlight the most significant events which have taken place in the field of financial management. I would also like to point out that the issue before us is financial management and not each of the specific issues arising from that management and, furthermore, any potential irregularities are dealt with by the various courts or judicial authorities. For all of these reasons, the report for which I have the honour of being rapporteur consists, as usual, of three important documents. On the one hand, the discharge of the accounts is submitted to this plenum and, secondly, what is proposed is that the management should be discharged, rather than postponed, accompanied by recommendations which make up a resolution covering very diverse aspects, some of which I will comment on very briefly. Firstly, we have the problem of shared management. In accordance with the Treaties, the Commission has exclusive responsibility for financial management, but it is also the case that eighty per cent of that financial management is in the hands of, or carried out with the crucially important cooperation of, the Member States or third States. It is therefore proposed that the Treaties be interpreted as granting and recognising the Commission’s primacy and pre-eminence in this area, in order to provide it with instruments which may require particular action on the part of the Member States. Furthermore, the report deals with the issues of Commission reform. This concerns substantial reform in the field of financial management which involves its decentralisation and the allocation of responsibility to the Directors-General which is reviewed every year in the annual statement of activities. This mechanism has been updated over the years and this report suggests further improvements. Within the reform of the Commission, the issue of Eurostat is raised. We have just heard a statement from the Commission and unfortunately this issue is not closed. Instead, it is in the hands of the judicial authorities, which could raise issues of political responsibility in the future, and we must therefore remain vigilant. It is also the case, however, that Eurostat has also served as an incentive for certain important reforms undertaken by the Commission, including detecting some of the defects which existed, such as the relationship between the Directors-General and the Commissioners, which has been considerably enhanced in the Commission’s third progress report and in relation to which we must expect further substantial improvements. Within the context of this general reform of the Commission, we are also seeing a reform of accounting procedures, an important reform which must reconcile a dual system of budgetary management based on both cash-based and accrual-based accounting. We believe that the general approach which is being applied and proposed to be satisfactory. We must wait until 2005. Improvements have been made, such as the invoice register or the contractors’ database. The report also addresses problems of coordination between the various control structures and, fundamentally, the establishment, within the Directorates-General, of the relationship between the internal audit service and the Commissioners. The internal audit service is the responsibility of the Presidency and it is proposed that it remain with the Presidency. It is also proposed to link, to some extent, the Internal Audit Capabilities with the Internal Audit Service. Furthermore, it suggests a separation of the functions of the budget and those of budgetary control. With regard to the various policies that are analysed, in the field of own resources a more direct connection is proposed which reduces the tension that exists between net contributors and the other countries. The existence of a tax, the existence of a direct link between the European citizens and the Commission and the European institutions would promote awareness of the European Union and would reduce that tension between what some people give and what others receive. In the field of agriculture, a critical view is taken of the prefinancing of exports, which represents free financing, and, with regard to the Structural Funds, underutilisation, which is the result of the Member States’ overestimations in their calculations is criticised. With regard to external measures, it is requested that external audits are undertaken on the basis of objective criteria and that food safety and aid not be subsumed into the framework of a general development programme. Finally, in relation to administrative expenditure, the report addresses the problems of invalidity pensions and sick leave. I would also like to thank Bent Adamsen and Marianella Martínez, who have helped me, and the Executive Commission and the Court of Auditors for their cooperation.

Political group: PPE-DE