Rod (Verts/ALE). – (FR) Mr President, Mr Scarbonchi’s report poses a series of good questions. For several years, we, the Greens, have been fighting for parliamentary control and transparency, the guarantees of democracy. It is normal that the allocation and use of credits should be controlled by a body that is representative and democratic – characteristics that the EDF has not, it is true to say, manifested up to now.

Inclusion in the budget is one of the ways in which control of this programme may be guaranteed. It gives rise, however, to new problems. How to prevent the risk of transferring one budget heading to another, if there is no provision for some sort of ring-fencing? How to combine the Parliament’s annual budgetary compartmentalisation with the EDF’s five-year budget? The report does not provide enough solutions; it is a pity, since the flaws will affect the quality of control.

Furthermore, mention cannot be made of the EDF without referring to other risks of misinterpretation. How do we prevent this programme, controlled exclusively by European institutions, from favouring, for example, European enterprises in the ACP countries? How do we prevent the development of large projects favouring powerful states being preferred to the initiatives of less influential states or micro-projects closer to the needs of the population? Worse still, how are we to ensure that it will not be used as a roundabout means of financing armies on the pretext of keeping the peace? All this would divert the EDF from its purpose, which is development.

Quite to the contrary, it would make more sense to use the EDF for actions aimed at improving public health or environmental protection policies, for example. To work for development, in fact, it would be more logical to delegate control to the joint ACP/EU Parliamentary Assembly. This would give us a real advance, guaranteeing real democratic control. In fact, who is better placed to rule on the allocation and use of credits than the joint Parliamentary Assembly, in terms of both political legitimacy and capability? It still needs to be given the means and the responsibilities. All those Members who have spoken have said how dear democratic principles are to them. It is for the sake of their defence and their effectiveness that we cannot content ourselves with simple control by Parliament. We shall, however, support this report as the symbol of a first step, one that is decisive, but doubtless insufficient.