International

SP Euro-MP Dennis de Jong has asked the European Commission for its response to revelations from former member of the EU Court of Auditors Maarten Engwirda regarding abuses. The Dutchman has revealed that the Commission put the Court under pressure to go easy on fraud and that members of the Court from the countries where alleged abuses took place attempted a cover up. ‘I want the Commission to explain just what measures it proposes to take to guarantee the integrity of members of the Court of Auditors,’ says De Jong, adding that he also wanted ‘a debate on this with the European Parliament. Any idea the Commission has of going easy on monitoring by the Court must be dropped.’

Commission must be more open
De Jong has put a series of questions to the Commission regarding the institution’s illegal exertion of pressure. Although institution’s spokesperson has claimed in the press that there has been no wrongdoing on its part, De Jong is anxious to see improvements in the agreement with the Commission over its relationship with the Court of Auditors and to know how it intends to guarantee the integrity of the Court’s members. ‘Is there a code of conduct for members and how is this enforced?’ he asks. ‘And how are the various competences divided between the two bodies?´

In addition, De Jong wants the Commission to withdraw its proposal to allow more errors in the budget, a proposal currently under discussion in the Parliament’s Budgetary Control Committee, of which the SP Euro-MP is a member. ‘Now it’s clear that monitoring of the budget by the Court of Auditors in the past has not always been done well, we should be improving it, not making it worse,’ he says.