Madam
President,
Mrs.Ruhle
has produced an excellent Report on this subject.
I
am the newly appointed Rapporteur for the EIB, the European Central Bank
and the European Bank for Reconstruction & Development. I agree with
the amendments proposed by Mrs.Ruhle as they express clearly real concerns
about the EIB´s transparency, efficacy, accountability & conformity
with the Community´s objectives & policies. I will address briefly t
each of these concerns:-
- There
is widespread concern about the EIB´s transparency. My predecessor
from the Socialist Group, Mr.Freddie Blak, Mrs.Ruhle the author of her
Report, many members of Parliament, and
the Court of Auditors have all expressed their opinion on lack
of transparency in the operations of the EIB. Even the World Bank and
the East European NGO called Bank Watch have publicly stated this
view.
- Let
me turn to efficacy. Mrs.Ruhle states the need to evalue the
effectiveness of EIB operations. I, as the new Rapporteur for the
Bank, requested
Sir Brian Unwin, the President of the EIB, for an initial meeting to
set out a framework to assess the efficiency of the Bank. I am sorry
to report that Sir Brian has not even bothered to ring me or arranged
to meet, despite numerous telephone reminders! Such disregard for this
new European Parliament,
will erode, yet again, public respect and confidence in the
European Union.
- What
about public accountability? In May 1999, my predecessor, Mr.Blak,
Vice President of COCOBU, asked 26 specific questions about alleged
fraud, mismanagement, corruption and cover up in the Bank´s activites,
including in the Treasury operations,
over the period 1993-1998. The questions are specific, detailed
& relevant. They require a written reponse from the Bank . I have
requested Sir Brian for such a response but once again he has chosen
to ignore my request! I have been told by Mr.Maarti, one of his Vice
Presidents, that the EIB is owned by the Member States and as such,
according to the Treaty, it is not
an EU institution obliged to respond to the European
Parliament, the Court of Auditors or OLAF. Only matters relating to
loans to non-EU countries where the Community gives loan guarantees
can be discussed with Members of Parliament. I ask: who are these
Member States? Are they not the Governments of the people who live,
work and pay taxes in the countries that we call Member States? Are we
not,as the only elected representatives of the people of these Member
States, expected to safeguard the interests of these people who live
in the Member States? Does the Treaty specifically forbid the European
Parliament from having access to information? Certainly not!
Therefore, if the EIB is confident that it functions well and has
nothing to hide then why is Sir Brian Unwin, its President, denying
access to the Parliament, Court of Auditors and OLAF? Clearly, the
Treaty needs to be amended to specify such access in bold print and I
suggest that those involved in the IGC will take note. Clearly, there
is support for this as ECOFIN in their meeting in Helsinki on the 8th
October, 99 re-inforced its previous criticism of the EIB management
and performance by directing it to open its doors to OLAF and the
Court of Auditors. I have seen the Decision taken by the EIB to this
directive from ECOFIN and Paragraph 5 & 6 of this Decision confirm
that the EIB is still resisting free access. The EIB is suggesting
that cases of fraud, mismanagement, corruption and cover up brought to
its attention can only be investigated by its own Head of Internal
Audit and this internal report will be handed to OLAF! In other words,
OLAF will have to wait outside the door of the EIB without
free access to documentation! Such a challenge to ECOFIN and
the European Parliament by appointees of Member States must not be
allowed. Such a management should be told in simple language: you have
been asked to SERVE – not to undermine the authority of Member
States and Parliament. I
hope the EIB will appreciate that co-operation, transparency,
and public accountability are common aims of all EU institutions and
these criteria of good practice apply to the EIB just as much as to
other EU institutions!
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