Sanatarkat istuntoselostukset

Keskiviikko 15. marraskuuta 2017 - Strasbourg

13.4. Tilintarkastustuomioistuimen jäsenen nimittäminen - Karel Pinxten (A8-0336/2017 - Indrek Tarand) (äänestys)

– Prima della votazione:

  Indrek Tarand, rapporteur. – Mr President, I should like to thank all colleagues for the exciting votes for the Vice-Presidencies. It was a great feeling to be part of the Olympic Games again. While I do know how much we hate rapporteurs’ two-minute speeches before a valuable voting time, in this case it would be wrong if I were silent about one issue, which is the Belgian candidate. In the Committee, we had the vote which did not support him because he was accused of some violations of rules on misbehaviour or something like that. But we are not the court here, and unless the person has not been proven guilty, he is innocent and we should keep that in mind.

On the other hand, we have the report adopted in 2014 by this Parliament, written by Ms Inés Ayala Sender, which basically says that we do not recommend than two more periods in office at the Court of Auditors in Luxembourg. On this occasion, this candidate is applying for a third. If you want to vote in favour, use my first excuse, if you want to vote, against use my second.

The other concern which there has been in the Court of Auditors is a gender balance. It is regrettable, but very big and old Member States have never considered promoting a woman candidate. It is not only for Finland, Estonia, Bulgaria and other small states to promote gender balance. It is also for Italy, Spain, Hungary, etc. (I did not mention Poland today, they got their share earlier in the morning).

Finally, the thing is that we should also consider if we want our former colleagues, politicians, to become members of the Court of Auditors. If we do, we have to be consistent. If we prefer to have professional auditors and accountants there to inspect our everyday dealings with financial matters, we should be also consistent. What we have is a mix. Sometimes bigger political groups take one deal, sometimes the other, depending on a candidate’s political background.

We should come up with a decision – what do we really want? Otherwise, as a rapporteur, I would encourage you to vote according to your conscience and make the best possible decision for Europe.