James Nicholson (ECR). - Madam President, the main justification put forward for the creation of a European Public Prosecutors Office has been the scale of fraud against the EU budget. Indeed, some of the figures discussed are quite astonishing, with last year’s EU audit acknowledging that EUR[nbsp ]404 million had been lost to fraud. Other reports state that the actual amount was more likely to be twelve times that figure. Is the European Public Prosecutor’s Office the best way to tackle fraud? I think that is the question you have to answer.

My constituency, where I come from, perhaps knows more than most that where policing and justice powers reside remains a very sensitive issue. After many years of tumultuous changes, public and political confidence in policing in Northern Ireland had been built to devolve powers to the local level. I had my reservations then, and I think in recent months we have seen how delicate and fragile this confidence can be. The lesson I take from my own constituency is that, where concerns exist, they should be listened to.

I would also like to say that a zero-tolerance approach to fraud against the EU’s budget is needed. But disregarding the concerns of Member States in establishing new and more costly bodies is not necessarily the solution, in my opinion.