Marie-Arlette Carlotti, on behalf of the PSE Group. – (FR) Mr President, budget aid has long had a very bad reputation, and it is the failure of the ultraliberal formulas that encompass the structural adjustment plans that has resulted in budget aid now becoming an integral part of the Union’s cooperation policy and in its being enshrined, as you were saying just now, in a European consensus. Budget aid is now regarded as a vital tool in the fight against poverty and in the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, because it enables the most vulnerable populations to be reached directly and resources to be focused on the crucial sectors of education and basic health care.

Furthermore, it also plays a decisive part in rehabilitating States. That is very important, because it is the decline of States and their inability to fulfil their basic public service obligations that is now hindering development, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa. Budget aid provides an incentive for appropriation, that is, the opportunity for the recipient country to choose its own development process, and it is also a precious instrument of political dialogue between donors and beneficiaries and perhaps even of support for parliaments in their role as public finance controller.

However, budget aid cannot fulfil its objectives if prior conditions are not met, in particular good governance and the fight against corruption, democracy, respect for fundamental rights and a system for managing public finances that is controlled by a democratically-elected parliament. All of that has been outlined very effectively in the report by my fellow Member, Mr Gahler. However, as the Court of Auditors report revealed, at a time when budget aid really needs clarity, transparency and democracy, it is sometimes a lack of clarity that prevails, because, in several countries – Kenya and Malawi were mentioned – the Commission has used budget aid without the conditions, the proper prior conditions, having been met.

It is true that we are now awaiting some very precise answers from the Commission and that we expect it to get right to the bottom of these countries that have been mentioned and to establish control. Like the report, I would recommend a form of external control, instead, either by having the Court of Auditors step in, or by creating a control body in cooperation with the other donors. I believe that, in return for precise monitoring, Parliament will support this new instrument that you have implemented.