Mr President, the Committee on Cooperation and Development has been extremely critical in its appraisal of what became of the development and cooperation expenditure in 1998. We have translated this criticism into a number of very concrete questions, answers and proposals in order to make drastic changes to the policy as it is being adopted now and will be adopted this coming year. To our great delight, we are also at the dawn of a drastic reform of development policy. Policy as it was adopted in 1998 by Europe as one of the world’s key players did not really have a clear poverty focus or clear-cut, result-orientated objectives and, as such, it was difficult to judge whether we had achieved our goal. We have now agreed to re-arrange the entire budget in a number of clearly defined sectors according to international agreements in the field of poverty control and, following on from this, to submit annual reports on the results within the various sectors to our Parliament. It has also been agreed that in these sectors, clear objectives will be formulated and that, in these objectives, basic health care and primary education will be considerably reinforced as components of social development. This is not just restricted to either the European Parliament budget or the EDF budget, but refers to the total. This brings us to the desire and agreement that the EDF, even if it is just in terms of figures, will at least be absorbed into the 2001 budget, so that we in Parliament can actually see where the money is being spent. After all, we are talking about a huge amount which the European tax payer expects to be used to combat poverty. If we look at what really happens, however, it is often not about a child who goes to school or food which is grown locally in a more productive way. Very often, economic interests of the various Member States in Europe take priority over poverty issues in the relevant countries. In terms of inspection, this is all undoubtedly neatly justified in accounts, but is incorrect in terms of content. This poverty focus is essential in order to actually get value for money. We hope that, with the inclusion of the EDF in the 2001 budget, even if we do not have any formal budgetary authority there, we will be able to pursue a more result-orientated policy by breaking it down into clear sectors. Then there is still the staffing problem. Many shortcomings, the lack of spending and the fact that 80% of the commitment appropriations are sometimes not spent, are due to an organisational structure which is inadequate, not sufficiently decentralised in the various relevant countries and guided by a form of regulation which does too little examining after the event and is too bureaucratic before the event. In the light of this, there is a great need for reform on this score. We at the Committee on Development and Cooperation have every confidence that we can bring about this reform thanks to the agreements we have reached with the Commission. Further to the agreement we concluded with the Committee on Budgetary Control, I also expect that the action plan on 15 May will help us at the Parliament to turn a corner, in tandem with the Commission. I would like to underline the confidence we have in the Commission and all its Commissioners.

Political group: PSE