Resolution informing the Commission of the reasons why the discharge cannot at present be given in respect of the implementation of the general budget of the European Communities for the 1997 financial year
1. 10. 1999 EN Official Journal of the European Communities C 279/119 Tuesday 4 May 1999 23. Notes that, as its Committee of Inquiry into the Community Transit System was not informed by the Commission of the real scale of its problems with the computerisation of the transit system, it made an incorrect analysis of the reasons for the delay in the introduction of the system; Personal responsibility of Commissioners 24. Considers that examples discovered during the discharge procedure have revealed a real concern that irregularities are committed without individual Commissioners perceiving the need to take personal responsibility for such actions; Weaknesses in the Commission’s structure Believes that the discharge procedure has illustrated in many cases a lack of flexibility in personnel 25. management with unacceptable abuses arising from this. Urgent action is required to modernise the structures in preparation for an incoming Commission on 1 January 2000. (b) A4-0201/99 Resolution informing the Commission of the reasons why the discharge cannot at present be given in respect of the implementation of the general budget of the European Communities for the 1997 financial year The European Parliament, − having regard to the revenue and expenditure accounts and the financial statement of the European Communities for the 1997 financial year (SEC(98)0519 − C4-0350/98, SEC(98)0520 − C4-0351/98, SEC(98)0522 − C4-0352/98), − having regard to the report of the Court of Auditors for the 1997 financial year (1) and to the special reports relating thereto, − having regard to the Council recommendation of 15 March 1999 (C4-0156/99), − having regard to Article 276 of the Treaty establishing the European Community, − having regard to Article 89 of the Financial Regulation, and in particular paragraphs 1 and 4 thereof, − having regard to Rule 86 of its Rules of Procedure, − having regard to the initial report of the Committee of Independent Experts on the allegations of fraud, mismanagement and nepotism in the European Commission, − having regard to the attached Working Document of the Committee on Budgetary Control on the implementation of the general budget of the European Community for the 1997 financial year, − having regard to the report of the Committee on Budgetary Control and the opinions of the Committee on Research, Technological Development and Energy, the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs, the Committee on External Economic Relations, the Committee on Regional Policy, the Committee on Transport and Tourism, the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Consumer Protection, the Committee on Culture, Youth, Education and the Media, the Committee on Development and Cooperation, the Committee on Civil Liberties and Internal Affairs, the Committee on Fisheries and the Committee on Women’s Rights (A4-0201/99), A. whereas, pursuant to Article 276 of the EC Treaty, the European Parliament gives discharge to the Commission in respect of the implementation of the budget, B. whereas the President and Members of the Commission have resigned from office, (1) OJ C 349, 17. 11. 1998. C 279/120 EN Official Journal of the European Communities 1. 10. 1999 Tuesday 4 May 1999 1. Decides to postpone discharge; 2. Notes that the Committee of Independent Experts will submit by September 1999 a second, final report (resolution of 23 March 1999 on the resignation of the Commission and the appointment of a new Commission (1)) giving a far-reaching overview of the culture, practices and procedures of the Commission; 3. Notes that discharge cannot be granted to an outgoing Commission which has no authority to enter into any commitments towards the European Parliament in respect of future policy; believes that discharge should be granted to the new Commission in response to the reform undertakings it gives, pursuant to Article 89(4) of the Financial Regulation, between now and 15 October 1999; Instructs its President to forward this resolution and the above-mentioned working document of the 4. Committee on Budgetary Control to the Commission, the Council and the Court of Auditors. (1) Minutes of that sitting, Part II, Item 2. ANNEX WORKING DOCUMENT postponement of the discharge to be given to the Commission in respect of the implementation of the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 1997 A. whereas the discharge procedure for the 1996 financial year has revealed serious shortcomings in the ability of the Community’s Executive properly to implement the Union’s policies, B. whereas these doubts were confirmed by the report of the Committee of Independent Experts, which pointed out that the institutions of the European Union still need to acquire a culture of responsibility and the resources necessary for the practical implementation of responsibilities, C. believing that the serious criticisms expressed by the independent experts and the discharge authority about financial management need to be converted into a call for practical measures with a view to relaunching Union action during this crucial stage prior to enlargement and the launching of Agenda 2000, D. whereas the European Parliament, in its capacity as discharge authority, is the only elected body empowered to exercise supervision of the proper and efficient implementation of the budget, but whereas account has to be taken of the assessments of the committee of independent experts, E. whereas the Council has, for several years, in its recommendations for discharge, performed its task in a way which does not suggest an in-depth evaluation of implementation of the budget, F. recalling that on 14 January 1999 the European Parliament had already called for specific measures on the following matters: the setting up of a new independent anti-fraud agency; publication of the full text of the Declaration of Interests by all Commissioners; forwarding to Parliament of the three codes of conduct concerning the work of the Commissioners and their offices, officials and relations between them; establishment of a formal agreement on confidential procedures; reform of the Staff Regulations, notably with regard to disciplinary action, G. noting that the discharge constitutes a political act expressing confidence in the Executive in respect of the proper and effective management of the Union’s financial policies; and that this act is indissolubly linked with the decision of the European Parliament to close the accounts of the financial year in question, such closure constituting discharge, H. recalling that the action of the Member States’ administrations has an impact on the implementation of most of the budgetary policies and that the discharge procedure must take account of this factor, without however diminishing the institutional responsibility of the Commission to implement the budget, I. recalling that the Commission is obliged to ensure that the discharge authority is provided with all the information required under Article 276 of the Treaty, 1. 10. 1999 EN Official Journal of the European Communities C 279/121 Tuesday 4 May 1999 J. whereas the crisis surrounding the 1996 discharge procedure resulted above all from two factors: − the inadequacy of the Commission’s political, financial and administrative management in the many tasks it performs both internally and externally, − embezzlement on the part of some staff members, to which the response of the Commissioners has too often been lax and ineffectual, K. whereas the Commission’s policy has been characterised by, on the one hand, excessive centralisation of tasks and, on the other, excessive decentralisation of powers towards external bodies such as the Technical Assistance Offices, which are not subject to appropriate scrutiny, L. noting that the committee of independent experts identified a link between the Commission’s management failures and deficiencies in the establishment plan, which it felt constituted a violation of the integrity of the European public service, M. whereas, therefore, the Commission’s staff policy culture must be adapted to the increased managerial responsibilities which the Commission already exercises and which are assuming growing importance in the Union context, particularly in the run-up to enlargement, N. noting that the Commission, having acknowledged the existence of this challenge, has put in hand a huge reform programme in respect of in-house and external staff, O. emphasising that the Commission bears ultimate responsibility, at Community level, for the action of the national administrations which are jointly responsible for the implementation of the national policies managed on a partnership basis; noting that the Commission, acting in conjunction with the financial representatives of the Member States in the context of the SEM 2000 programme, has been developing measures since 1996/97 to consolidate and strengthen the partnership with the national administrations, P. noting that, since a large proportion of Community funds is managed by the Member States, a substantial percentage of the management shortcomings are linked to malfunctioning in the national administrations and that the Council must therefore acknowledge its responsibility to improve cooperation between Community and national administrations and involve the latter more closely in the discharge procedure, as provided moreover in the new version of Article 274 of the EC Treaty, Q. whereas, therefore, cooperation between national and Community partners must constitute the central plank of much wider integration, on a subsidiary basis, of the Community and national levels and whereas external supervision of the Community and national audit bodies is a major component of this overall framework, R. noting that the GNP resource is assuming growing importance in the own resources system; noting that a precise calculation is currently hampered by tax evasion and the existence, to some extent, of an underground economy throughout the Community; noting that the Commission has embarked on technical measures to ensure that national accounts are exhaustive but taking the view that this problem is also a political one, S. believing that assistance to the Palestinian people through programmes and projects implemented by the European Commission has played and will continue to play a crucial economic and political role in the Middle East despite deteriorating economic and social conditions, T. whereas, finally, there is a need to identify the priorities required to serve as the basis for the dialogue between the discharge authority and the new Commission, I. GENERAL REMARKS Discharge procedure 1. Considers it essential that there should be a reform of the rules on the discharge procedure; requests the Commission to propose that this be implemented as part of the revision of the Financial Regulation, while Parliament will carry out a revision of its Rules of Procedure; C 279/122 EN Official Journal of the European Communities 1. 10. 1999 Tuesday 4 May 1999 2. Will open negotiations with the Council, the Commission, the Court of Auditors and the Member States in the context of the SEM 2000 programme, with a view to ensuring that the discharge procedure includes a dialogue with the national administrations; considers that to this end any agreement reached, which should be finalised as part of the revision of the Financial Regulation, should include: − bringing forward the starting date of the discharge procedure and, as a consequence, that of the submission of the Court of Auditors’ annual report, in particular with a view to shortening the contradictory procedure; − the possibility for representatives of the national administrations to be heard by the discharge authority at its request or on their own initiative; − notification of the measures which national administrations have adopted in the light of the discharge decision; Information for the discharge authority 3. Considers that the right of information accorded to it by Article 276(2) of the EC Treaty in respect of discharge requires the Commission to submit to it, in their entirety, all documents it considers necessary for the exercise of this responsibility; Instructs its Committee on the Rules of Procedure, the Verification of Credentials and Immunities to 4. table a proposed amendment to the Rules of Procedure seeking to: − emphasise the specific nature of Parliament’s right to information in the context of the discharge procedure; − provide for confidential procedural arrangements appropriate to the different types of document and information; − restrict the exercise of these rights to the objectives of budgetary control; Staff policy Calls on the Commission to target the reform of staff policy, which must be clearly defined, at the 5. following objectives: (a) reduce vacant posts to a maximum of 2% of the posts in the establishment plan; (b) progressively devolve on the national authorities and the applicant countries the tasks of supervisory administration, while entrusting supervision to decentralised bodies in their territories and ensure an adequate sharing of controls by the Community and national bodies; (c) establish staffing needs (in quantitative and practical terms) in relation to the Union’s political priorities, on the basis of the report requested from the Commission by Parliament in the context of the budgetary priorities for 2000; (d) continue with the modernisation policy (MAP 2000 programme), possibly on the basis of the impetus which a critical assessment by the Court of Auditors might give to the development of the programme; (e) open up competitions to the maximum number of participants on a geographical basis, in particular by making them neutral in terms of the cultural and occupational differences which exist between one Member State and another; prevent dysfunctions by wider use of computer technologies and/or decentralisation; (f) codify the tasks of the seconded national experts in relation to their skills; (g) settle cases of incompatibility in the field of recruitment and performance of budgetary and administrative tasks, while at the same time providing for incompatibilities for Commissioners and their private offices; (h) restrict the number of members of private offices, codify their tasks and boost the plurinational factor; 6. Takes the view that the serious management and supervisory problems resulting from the ever wider use of Technical Assistance Offices (TAOs) require an urgent and appropriate response and calls on the Commission to implement the following measures without delay: (a) introduce systematic monitoring of compliance by TAOs with Community provisions on budgetary and administrative matters and with the application of national law; (b) provide for incompatibility rules for the TAOs; 1. 10. 1999 EN Official Journal of the European Communities C 279/123 Tuesday 4 May 1999 (c) rule out the use of TAOs for any European public service task (in particular, any discretionary disbursement of public European funds, including preparatory activities) and strictly define the relevant scenarios; (d) define by way of regulation all the provisions governing the statuses of staff, Commissioners and TAOs; Calls on the Court of Auditors to deliver an opinion as soon as possible with alternative approaches 7. to performing the duties which have hitherto been entrusted to the TAOs; 8. Regrets, however, that the Commission’s reaction was lacking in a number of key respects: wants the new Commission to take up these points again in a constructive way and in a spirit of cooperation with the European Parliament; Conclusions of the independent experts and revision of the Financial Regulation and of the Staff Regulations 9. Notes that the conclusions drawn by the independent experts in their first report, points made on numerous occasions in the past by the Committee on Budgetary Control, highlighted gaps in the supervisory, investigatory and disciplinary systems within the Commission; believes that initial reforms could already be contemplated as part of the revision of the Financial Regulation, pursuant to the recommendations adopted by the European Parliament in its resolution of 11 March 1999 on the need to modify and reform the European Union’s own resources system (1): (a) the administrative and budgetary procedure leading up to the commitment and implementation of expenditure should be made more fluid, by eliminating the red tape which hampers the decision- making process, in return for a greater burden of responsibility for authorising officers; (b) the Financial Controller’s approval, which was given too frequently to irregular operations, must presuppose not only that the act is regular in formal terms, but that the underlying operation is also legitimate; (c) the separation of the powers of a priori supervision (the Financial Controller’s approval) and auditing powers will be necessary to prevent the same body from carrying out tasks of a divergent, and often incompatible, nature; (d) administrative inquiries, which are too frequent and rarely lead to disciplinary inquiries, should be limited by precisely defining the cases in which they should apply, the relevant time-limits and the use made of the results; Commission reform 10. Takes the view that the Commission must introduce more comprehensive institutional reforms enabling it better to adapt its management and supervisory culture to the new challenges with which it is faced and consequently to improve its relations with the European public and external organisations; Stresses the need for a public register of incoming documents and a uniform and adequate 11. procedure for archives to avoid problems with ‘lost files’ and increase transparency; 12. Accordingly calls on the new Commission to put in hand the following reforms: (a) to reduce and rationalise portfolios, by defining a limited number of real responsibilities, and to adapt its structures and directorates-general accordingly; (b) the strengthen the coordinating role of the President and the Secretary-General of the Commission in accordance with the Amsterdam Treaty; (c) to strengthen the Commission’s institutional and management structures in order to ensure that tasks are not decentralised at the expense of cohesion. Community policies managed on a partnership basis Notes that the launching of the SEM 2000 programme has made it possible to find solutions of 13. principle for several problems arising from the implementation of the policies managed in partnership with the administrations of Member States, for example, concerning the eligibility of structural operations and financial adjustments in that area; expects, however, that this theoretical result will be reflected in a practical improvement in implementation and that such progress, already noted in the DAS for 1997 in the EAGGF, will also be true of the structural actions; will verify the implementing procedures for the financial adjustments as part of the discharge; (1) Minutes of that sitting, Part II, Item 2. C 279/124 EN Official Journal of the European Communities 1. 10. 1999 Tuesday 4 May 1999 14. Regrets that the proposals on the reform of the Structural Funds essentially leave the definition of eligibility to national provisions and calls on the Commission to establish a hard core of provisions with a view to enhancing homogeneous application in the Member States; 15. Notes that a large number of cooperation problems are still entirely or partly unsolved, in areas such as the integrated supervision of EAGGF operations and the capacity of paying agencies, customs cooperation, Community transit, fraud prevention and adaptation of applicant countries to Community standards in terms of management and supervision; Urges Member States to devote more resources to the control of areas of expenditure for which they 16. are responsible and to implement in full Article 280 of the Treaty; Encourages the Commission to continue its work and assures it of its critical support; to this end, 17. urges the Commission to involve Parliament formally in an observer capacity in the work of SEM 2000 in respect of partnership management; Cooperation between audit bodies 18. Issues an appeal to the European Court of Auditors and to the national audit bodies to step up their mutual cooperation in order gradually to establish systematic partnership on the basis of shared programmes and comparable auditing methods with the aim of agreeing on a common approach to supervising the management of the Community budget; II. 1997 DISCHARGE Own resources system Supports the Commission’s efforts to ensure that national accounts are exhaustive, by taking full 19. account of tax evasion and the underground economy; 20. Believes that these efforts must be reflected in institutional and political responsibility and that the Executive, which is the guarantor of the proper implementation of the budget, must take institutional and political responsibility therefor; 21. Calls on the Commission therefore to arrange for the technical establishment of the exhaustiveness of the national accounts to be followed by a declaration, made on its own political responsibility, guaranteeing that those accounts are exhaustive and that the Executive stands surety for any dispute which might arise in this regard; 22. Expresses surprise at the fact that the Council, while understanding the analysis by the Court and the Commission on the desirability of replacing the old European system of integrated economic accounts by the new one proposed in 1995, has failed to draw the logical conclusions and is intending to maintain the status quo, without providing any explanation; 23. Calls on the Commission in its entirety to do everything in its power to ensure that the new computerised transit information system (NCTIS) becomes operational as soon as possible; regrets the inexcusable delays which have already occurred; expects the Commission to inform Parliament of the reasons, if there are any further delays, and of the action taken by it; 24. Notes that the problem resulting from the importation of New Zealand dairy products has not yet reached its conclusion, but emphasises that a practical solution must be found to put an end to a situation which may well inflame international relations and obstruct the operation of the market; therefore calls on the Commission: (a) to support the efforts of the United Kingdom Government aimed at recovering the sums owed to the Community budget; (b) to assess the seriousness of the matter, and of the negligence, in respect of the four alleged cases of irregularities; (c) to ascertain, on the basis of these criteria, which of the above cases unquestionably necessitate a penalty within the meaning of the Customs Code, and in particular Article 239 thereof; 1. 10. 1999 EN Official Journal of the European Communities C 279/125 Tuesday 4 May 1999 (d) to take account of the opinions of specialised international organisations, such as the World Trade Organisation, without prejudging the possibility of an appeal against their decisions; (e) to ensure that the New Zealand Government assumes a monitoring role in the IMA-issuing system in order to avoid the conflict of interest arising from the fact that the New Zealand Dairy Board is currently both beneficiary and monitor of the arrangement; (f) to enact binding control rules for imports under reduced-rate customs quotas and, at the same time, to revise the IMA1 customs certificate procedures which are currently in force; (g) to support the legitimate interests of all Community importers by enabling them, in accordance with the rules of free world trade, to import products at a reduced rate under the same conditions as those granted to exporters from countries benefiting from customs preferences; EAGGF−Guarantee Section 25. Notes that the Commission has complied, in respect of the BSE problem, with most of the recommendations formulated by the European Parliament’s temporary committee of inquiry, but requests it, as part of the clearance of accounts, to recover in full the amounts paid out in contravention of the Regulations in force, to report to Parliament explicitly on the state of recovery, and to continue its work on setting up a comprehensive system for the identification and registration of bovine animals; 26. Calls on the Commission once again: (a) to speed up implementation of an integrated system for the financial and budgetary management of the EAGGF−Guidance Section; (b) to ensure that risk analysis is applied to all customs inspections for the arrangements which affect the Community budget, including both exports and imports; (c) to speed up development of the new transit system; (d) to improve coordination between physical and a posteriori checks, as provided for by Council Regulation No 4045/89, and to step up laboratory analyses of agricultural products benefiting from export refunds; Notes that as regards the clearance of accounts for the EAGGF−Guarantee Section, for the years 27. 1993 and 1994, the case concerning Fle´chard and the state of recovery need further clarification; 28. Notes, in agreement with the Council, that the Court of Auditors’ observations on durum wheat refer to the text of the existing rules and have no implications in terms of implementation or irregularities and that, consequently, there is no need to draw conclusions from them as part of the discharge procedure; notes that it would nevertheless be appropriate for the legislative and budgetary authorities to give thought to changes to make legislation more equitable; Structural policies 29. Notes that the Court of Auditors, reviewing implementation of the Structural Funds, expresses several criticisms, supported by the Council, most of which relate to the need for better coordination between the legislation, estimates and implementation of the Structural Funds; emphasises in this connection that: (a) the budgetary authority will need to budgetise in a realistic manner the amounts in the financial perspective and ensure that sufficient payment appropriations are entered to meet actual commit- ments; (b) the Commission must do its utmost to ensure that the Member States keep it informed of implementation operations up to and including final beneficiaries (including the setting-up of databases); (c) the legislative authority and the Commission will have to define more precisely the concept of additionality and the detailed arrangements for application and penalties in the event of non- compliance; (d) the Commission and the responsible authorities in the Member States must act at every level (entry of appropriations, implementation, better use of monitoring committees) in order to narrow the gap between legislation and implementation of structural measures; C 279/126 EN Official Journal of the European Communities 1. 10. 1999 Tuesday 4 May 1999 (e) revision of the Financial Regulation and reform of the Structural Funds should be such as to give legal commitments, accounting commitments and payments a status accurately reflecting the actual implementation of actions financed; Expects to receive specific proposals on this matter from the Commission and the SEM 2000 30. authorities which it will deal with during its work on Agenda 2000; Internal policies 31. Regrets that a grey area has emerged in the management of internal policies and observes that the most striking examples in 1997 are to be found in the management of a scientific visitor and the Leonardo programme; 32. Deplores the Commission’s failure, despite several demands, to inform the European Parliament about the management problems affecting the Leonardo programme, thus letting Parliament vote on Leonardo II on a false basis; Notes that the Commission has adopted certain of the measures recommended during the debate 33. with the budgetary control authority, namely: − − − revision of the status of visitors, which will in future preclude any distortions in recruitment; termination of the contract with the TAO Agenor in respect of management of the Leonardo programme; takeover of the management of the programme by the Commission, which must happen without delay and be accompanied by measures designed to ensure proper continuation of the programme; Calls on the Commission to act without delay to recover in full the money paid to the scientific 34. visitor for his contracts with DG XII and the JRC; 35. Takes the view that the irregularities and favouritism which characterised the Commission’s management are symptomatic of responsibilities situated both at political level and at the level of the administration and supervisory authorities; 36. Points out that the Commission has faced up to its institutional responsibilities; emphasises however that the latter are also attributable to the imperfections of the system, which must be rectified by measures relating to in-house and external staff; External policy areas (a) Palestine 37. Is concerned that the Commission, although hampered by extraneous factors, has on occasion failed to deliver and monitor its programmes effectively and notes that its actions have often been characterised by a lack of coordination, leading, inter alia, to erratic patterns of disbursement; Regrets that the Commission has embarked upon ambitious projects, such as the European Gaza 38. Hospital, with insufficient attention to their feasibility and sustainability; resulting in an image not commensurate with the economic contribution of the European Union; Calls on the Commission, within the context of its strategic priorities, to build upon people- 39. to-people projects proven to be simple, visible and effective; 40. Insists that the European Commission improve its programme preparation, implementation and evaluation by significantly strengthening coordination with the Palestinian Ministry of Planning and other responsible authorities and by establishing a management information system to prevent major problems and delays; (b) South Africa 41. Is concerned that the positive work undertaken by the Commission’s delegation in South Africa, under difficult circumstances, to implement Community development aid is undermined by the slowness and inflexibility of procedures imposed by the Commission in Brussels and is disturbed by the subsequent tarnishing of the image of the European Union; 1. 10. 1999 EN Official Journal of the European Communities C 279/127 Tuesday 4 May 1999 42. Notes that problems have been repeatedly raised in a number of audit reports submitted by the Court of Auditors, including the concentration of management powers in Brussels, lack of suitable staff in the delegation and a general failure to manage and follow up projects in a timely and effective fashion; Believes that the delegation in South Africa should be recognised as a key office and deserves 43. special attention from the Commission; (c) PHARE and TACIS 44. Believes that the situation exposed by the Commission’s financial controller concerning the procedures for the award of PHARE and TACIS contracts is detrimental to the Union’s image in recipient countries; calls on the Commission: (a) to fully comply with the Financial Regulation and therefore to award contracts by private treaty only in exceptional cases; (b) to bring in the ACPC for all contracts involving administrative support costs; (c) to propose better arrangements in the context of revision of the Financial Regulation to make sure that there is also as much competition as possible when contracts are awarded to non-profit-making institutions or associations; (d) to ensure genuine price competition between tenderers; (e) to provide reasons for the inclusion or exclusion of each firm on the list of those which may be invited to submit tenders in the restricted procedure; (f) to ensure that the files relating to the award of contracts are complete so that the procedures themselves may be reconstructed; Calls on the Court of Auditors to carry out an audit of the procedures for the awarding of contracts 45. and of the contents of the PHARE and TACIS files; (d) Management of external aid 46. Notes that the joint RELEX service has not tackled the most important problem facing beneficiaries of the PHARE and TACIS programmes concerning the long payment periods for participation in projects; calls on the service to submit forthwith a proposal to modify the internal procedures in order to ensure prompt payment of beneficiaries by the Commission; Believes it is essential to give the RELEX service a genuine added value, and calls on the 47. Commission: (a) to make available, as soon as possible, posts to meet the nominal staffing level of this service; (b) to give the services responsible for external relations enough staff to perform their strategic task of setting guidelines; (c) to provide a precise breakdown of tasks performed by the external relations services and RELEX; (d) to speed up the programme of simplifying and harmonising procedures and typical contracts which should be reduced to the bare minimum; (e) to write off, in agreement with the partner countries, all dormant commitments which can no longer be completed satisfactorily; (f) to strive, in agreement with the legislative and budgetary authority, towards a genuine concentration of priority actions; (g) to end its current policy of demanding bank guarantees from NGOs; 48. Calls on the new Commission to make the management of pre-accession aid more efficient by bringing under the same service implementation of the funds concerning enlargement, as provided for in Parliament’s resolution of 14 January 1999 (PHARE, ISPA and SAPARD programmes); C 279/128 EN Official Journal of the European Communities 1. 10. 1999 Tuesday 4 May 1999 49. Notes that, although the Commission has now forwarded to Parliament the internal audit reports on Leonardo, it has not forwarded the eleven audit reports on the handling of certain contracts under ECHO which the Committee on Budgetary Control requested in October 1998; (e) MED Is concerned that there is still a considerable gap between commitments and actual payments for 50. external aid to developing countries and third countries in the Mediterranean region and that there is no sign of this trend reversing, despite the fact that the budgetary priorities have been set out in SEM 2000; is concerned that the gap between theory and practice in respect of external aid is undermining the EU’s credibility in this area; (f) Nuclear safety 51. Believes that the delays and shortcomings in the Commission’s activities in the field of nuclear safety underline the inflexibility and inadequacy of the Commission’s resources compared with the importance of the task; 52. Calls on the Institutions to ensure that there is in future a match between the resources and tasks entrusted to the Commission, and calls on the Commission no longer to accept any responsibilities without having the appropriate expertise and resources; EAC 53. Deeply regrets the fact that after 16 years the Commission has still not implemented Regulation 3245/81 on the European Association for Cooperation, despite the fact that this regulation is explicitly mentioned in the remarks in the budget; calls for maximum transparency in winding up the Association, subject to Belgian national legislation and close scrutiny by the Court of Auditors and the Commission’s financial controller; Fraud − OLAF 54. Welcomes the progress made in establishing OLAF and expects − the Council to finalise the outcome of the negotiations before the end of May; − the Commission to confer on OLAF all the powers which were conferred on UCLAF and responsibility for all matters concerning unlawful activities, regardless of whether any financial damage is involved; Repeats its call for a complete list to be submitted of instances of presumed fraud, corruption or 55. other illegal acts committed by Commission officials; EIF 56. Recalling that the issue of transparent public audit and control of the EIF has been a long-festering question which has been raised successively in each discharge decision since the creation of the Fund on 14 June 1994, urges the Commission to seize the initiative and ensure rapid agreement between all parties to grant the Court of Auditors full access to the EIF, thereby enabling it to report to Parliament on the strengths and weaknesses of EIF management of Community and own equity funds; Decentralised agencies 57. Regrets that the new statutes for the second-generation agencies which have been agreed by the Commission and Parliament are being blocked by the Council, thereby preventing Parliament from exercising its proper control and discharge powers