Kinnock and Schreyer face parliamentary grilling
By Nicola Smith
EU Commissioners, Neil Kinnock and Michaele Schreyer face a grilling in the European Parliament today over further damaging revelations about the state of the Commission’s accounting system.
But their performance today is unlikely to provoke MEPs to postpone approval of the Commission’s 2001 accounts.
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Paulo Casaca, author of the so-called ‘discharge’ report, which gives the crucial verdict on the Commission’s budget for a given year, said that recent revelations were nothing new and would not sway his decision to approve the 2001 budget.
In the dock
Along with the Commission’s Internal Auditor, Jules Muis, the Commissioners will be put in the dock by members of the Budgetary Control Committee to explain their actions relating to a leaked memo from Mr Muis that lambasted the Commission’s accounting systems.
Mrs Schreyer, responsible for the EU Budget, and Mr Kinnock who takes charge of Institutional Reform, will answer questions on the progress achieved since Mr Muis’ report last March painted a dark picture of the dire state of the EU’s accounts.
The report, which was released last week along with a letter of support for the claims of Commission whistleblower, Marta Andreasen, created a political storm in Strasbourg last week when MEPs were riled that they had not known of its existence.
The letter claims that Mrs Andreasen’s allegations about the failures of the accounting system were "factually substantive and correct." Mrs Andreasen is currently in the process of a disciplinary hearing for going public with her allegations.
Go-ahead likely
The right to approve, postpone or reject the Commission’s accounts for a given year, is one of the European Parliament’s most powerful political weapons.
The failure to approve the Commission’s accounts in 1999 because of allegations of serious fraud and mismanagement triggered the notorious fall of the Santer Commission.
However, despite the barrage of negative publicity about the Commission’s accounts, many MEPs are likely to chose to look to the future and give their go-ahead for approval.
Nothing new
Portuguese Socialist and author of this year’s discharge report, Paulo Casaca, said that the recent revelations in the leaked memos did not change what MEPs already knew about the situation and would not affect the discharge decision.
"There is a serious problem with the accounting system and it has to be tackled," he told EUobserver.
He added that he had been given assurance from the European Commission that he would see the serious action that he had asked for. He urged the Commission to move on from the Andreasen affair.
"I think it is time to forget about the past and look to the future to make the necessary reforms to keep the Commission more accountable," he said.
Fellow Socialist, Michiel van Hulten, agreed that although there were likely to be very critical observations about the Commission’s handling of the affair, it would not lead to a decision to postpone discharge.
"Serious tension between senior officials is normal in any big organisation," he said, adding that he was not in favour of a situation where everything written by the Internal Audit Unit was turned into policy.
On the offensive
The most serious onslaught on the Commissioners will come from UK Conservative MEPs who are determined to postpone the budget, accusing the Commission of a serious lack of progress in reforming its accounts system.
The UK Conservatives, led by Budgetary Control spokesman, Chris Heaton-Harris, called last week for the suspension of Neil Kinnock for not disclosing the contents of the Muis letter to fellow Commissioners or to the Parliament.
The MEPs also argue that it is unacceptable that the Court of Auditors could not provide assurance that 95% of the budget had been correctly spent in 2001.
"There are dozens of reasons why discharge should be postponed. It is just a question of whether the European Parliament has got the guts to do it," said Mr Heaton-Harris.