Mr President, Commissioner, never before, in my seventeen years of membership of the Committee on Budgetary Control, has a follow-up report on a discharge which has already been granted left so many fundamental questions unanswered. They relate to openness, to the provision of prompt and comprehensive information from the Commission to Parliament and within the Commission itself, and to the assumption of responsibility by the Commissioners for abuses that have arisen. It seems that the shadow of the past is catching up with us. The rapporteur, Mr Casaca, has worked hard to produce this painstaking report. I would like to thank him in particular, as well as the committee as a whole for its outstanding work. The main issue in this report is to investigate and address the improper practices in and around the Statistical Office of the European Communities (Eurostat), such as slush funds, cronyism, violations of the financial regulations, lax treatment of the mobility rules, and various other things. If the Commission had taken seriously Parliament’s warnings about Eurostat in its reports of February and March and investigated what was going on, and had informed Parliament accordingly, the discharge would have been postponed from April to October. This would not have been serious, but would have given the Commission enough time to adopt the measures that it is now trying to rush through with astonishing speed. Yet again, the bottom line is that what we have is an information shortfall. What, too, about political responsibility? So far, not one Commissioner has admitted any responsibility. Admittedly, some errors have been acknowledged, but a clear admission has yet to come. That is regrettable, in my view. Claiming ignorance is no defence against responsibility. We are therefore pushing for this supposed ignorance to be removed by ensuring that the Commissioners finally close the yawning information gap between the officials, even to the highest ranks, and the Commissioners themselves. As early as 1999, the Commission equipped itself with rules on this issue. It is apparent that they still only exist on paper, unless what Commissioner Schreyer has just told us becomes reality. I would be delighted if that were to occur. OLAF, too, cannot serve as an excuse for the Commission’s inaction. The duty to exercise proper and thorough supervision lies, after all, with the Commission. Are the internal audit reports produced by the directorates-general being disregarded and the valuable audits carried out by the internal audit service being ignored by the Commissioners? What also concerns us deeply is the way in which the whistleblowers have been treated. They have drawn attention to numerous abuses. The current rules do not guarantee them protection. Faced with all this harsh criticism, why has the committee not proposed the dismissal of the entire Commission or individual Commissioners? This is my response: it is of no benefit to Europe if the irregularities continue at Eurostat. They must be cleared up – and that means now, by this Commission. We want to support the action plan and cooperate so that there is no repetition of these incidents in future.

Political group: PPE-DE