Jens Geier (S&D). – (DE) Mr President, Mr Kallas, Mr Caldeira, ladies and gentlemen, firstly I would like to thank you, Mr Caldeira, for your introduction and I would like to thank you and the members of the Court of Auditors for your report. Parliament will investigate carefully the information you have provided and will act on it in the coming months. I was pleased that the previously unacceptable error rate of the common agricultural policy has fallen. However, after reading the Court of Auditors’ report, I have the impression that one Member State, namely Romania, is responsible for the majority of the remaining irregularities. It seems that we must put more emphasis in future on training staff and implementing control systems correctly in the new Member States, if possible, before their accession.

The European Structural Funds, which many of my fellow Members have already mentioned, represent another cause for concern. It is true that the number of irregular payments has fallen when compared with the previous year, but there are still huge problems in ensuring that aid funding is handled without irregularities occurring. I would like to say to the Eurosceptic parts of this House that we are talking about 11% of the total payments and not 11% of the budget. This amounts to EUR 2.7 billion and not EUR 5 billion. I admit that this is still EUR 2.7 billion too much, but we must be accurate for the sake of honesty.

These irregularities relate mainly to excessive payments and the incorrect use of funds. For example, if European Social Fund (ESF) money is used to pay the salary of a public administrator or if European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) money is used to buy a building plot, then the people concerned obviously do not have sufficient information about the correct use of aid funding or the Member States do not have the will or the ability to administer the funding correctly, or perhaps all of the above.

When we revise the application procedure, we must put in place clear, transparent rules which are easier to understand. The Member States must ensure that the applications are monitored more carefully at a national level.

It is clear that any waste or any irregularities in relation to European taxpayers’ money is too much. However, anybody who takes an impartial look at the EU and at this report from the European Court of Auditors will find little cause for offence. It offers a number of starting points for our work, which consists of making Europe better and more efficient every day. On this basis we will implement the discharge procedure for the European Commission.