International

A year ago, on an initiative from the SP, the European Commission undertook to effect a thorough reform of the nine hundred EU Expert Groups, bodies appointed to advise the Commission on policy. The aim was to ensure that the groups would no longer be dominated by lobbyists from major corporations, but would also be representative of small business, trade unions, consumer bodies and environmentalist organisations. The group of like-minded MEPs, led by the SP’s Dennis de Jong, who conducted the talks with the Commission, today drew up the balance-sheet of progress made since the undertaking was given. ’it’s not yet time for a celebratory end to our work,’ De Jong stresses. ‘There’s still a great deal missing, which is why we’ve presented the Commission with an updated wishlist. At the same time we’re appreciative of the fact that progress has already been made and that the expert groups operate in a much more transparent fashion than they did a year ago.’

For the nineteenth year in succession the European court of Auditors has failed to give its complete approval to the accounts of expenditure of EU moneys. Commenting on the Auditors’ decision, SP Euro-MP Dennis de Jong says: ‘Not only has once again no approval been given, for the fourth year in a row the percentage of errors has increased. The Commission under Jose Barroso’s leadership has recorded absolutely no results in this area. The situation has simply got worse.’ The Commission is now seeking a solution in the form of establishing a European Office of Public Prosecutions charged with investigating and prosecuting fraud in the member states. National parliaments have used the yellow card procedure, which enables them to reject proposals, to do just that, as it is a disproportionate and probably also ineffective means of combatting fraud in relation to EU money. ‘Instead of wasting its time on this no-hope project,’ says De Jong, ‘the Commission should demand a declaration of accounts from each member state, while reforming its own anti-fraud institution, OLAF, so that the quality of investigations is greatly improved.’