Verbatim report of proceedings

Tuesday, 16 April 2019 - Strasbourg

8.6. Nomination of a member of the Court of Auditors - Viorel Ștefan (A8-0194/2019 - Indrek Tarand) (vote)

- Antes de la votación:

  Indrek Tarand (Verts/ALE), Rapporteur. – Mr President, I know how much we hate the speeches by rapporteurs which disturb the smooth flow of votes, but unfortunately, today I’m obliged to explain the dilemmas we are facing. We all know the old Israeli joke – how many times the policemen laughs when you tell him a joke – but during this mandate we have had eight appointments to the European Court of Auditors (ECA) and, with the outstanding exception of the Republic of Ireland, all of them have been political appointments – and, I must underline, increasingly so by the new or eastern-European Member States including, Estonia, Finland, and Hungary. I am not going to say that we, the politicians, are unsuited or incapable to carry out other professional work. On the contrary, our colleague Ms Maletić has very good credentials to become an auditor again. Yet the procedure for how the Member States pick up the candidates is far from transparent and fair. I hereby call on the Member States to listen finally to the calls of this Parliament and propose always two candidates to achieve a gender balance and follow the Irish example – that means having fair, public competition to select those people, in the spirit of Article 255 in our European Treaties.

Dear colleagues, we must reconsider whether we really need an ECA member from all the Member States simultaneously. Is there really so much to be audited? Why can’t we manage this institution by taking turns: 14 auditors for one period and 14 for another? If we fail, there will be more disgruntled and unhappy people around, ready to destroy Bastilles all over Europe. So please vote this time as the rapporteur has suggested, but keep in mind the fact that a process taken by the Romanian and Croatian governments has not met the high standards and ideals of the European Union. And indeed, the policeman only laughs once when you tell him a joke.