International

It’s a success: on 3rd March the European Parliament’s Budgetary Control Committee will receive a visit from Martin Engwirda, a visit requested by – amongst others - the SP’s European Parliament. Engwirda will speak about his experiences during the time that he was a member of the European Court of Auditors.

It’s all a bit tight, as on Wednesday evening I’ve got to be in the Netherlands to vote in the Provincial elections and thus record my protest against the government’s policies, ending up in The Hague to hear the results as they arrive. But on Thursday morning I’ll have to get up early to be back in Brussels for the hearing with the Budgetary Control Committee, as I have many questions to put to Martin Engwirda.

In itself I find it a brave act that, as soon as his term of office a member of the European Court of Auditors was up, on 1st January this year, he made it clear in an interview with Dutch national daily De Volkskrant, that a great deal had been wrong with the institution that is, it should be noted, responsible for monitoring the spending of our tax monies via the European Union. Amongst other things Engwirda said that the Court of Auditors had come under pressure from national governments to cast things in a better light than was justified by the reality.

He did say that things were now functioning better, but I wonder whether this is true. In addition to Engwirda, a German former member of the Court has been critical. So on Thursday, I want to hear just what guarantees of the independence of members now exist. Next we’re also going to hear the sitting President of the Court, and I intend to subject him to some fierce questioning as to the institution’s working methods, because if we now can’t even trust the European Court of Auditors, how can we as the European Parliament really perform our task of monitoring the budget?