Your Say

04/05/2004
Conservatives keep up the pressure over EU fraud

Conservative MEPs have finished their Strasbourg session by again raising concerns relating to the Eurostat investigation.

They said that the Commission had been given a clear message by the Motion for a Resolution on Eurostat adopted on 22 April 2004, which had:

• stated that the Commission had failed to draw the appropriate conclusions from the Eurostat affair, and that it had failed to accepts it political responsibility either collectively or individually
• made clear Parliament's intention to continue to monitor and scrutinise future developments in the ongoing Eurostat investigations and potential legal actions, with a view to proposing further reforms.

Leader of the Conservatives in the European Parliament, Jonathan Evans MEP, said: "Conservative MEPs have been actively engaged in raising concerns relating to Eurostat, and do not believe that the Commission has accepted political responsibility for the failures that have become clear from this affair.

"Our motion was agreed not just by the EPP-ED Group but by the Parliament as a whole. This shows how Conservative MEPs have been effective in highlighting the issue of fraud over the last five years. We will continue to do so in the next Parliament too.

"Since the Motion of Censure was originally devised, the responsible Commissioner Pedro Solbes has resigned and returned to Spanish politics.

"In these circumstances, it would clearly not be appropriate for the whole Commission to be dismissed at this time, but we urge the Commission to take note of the serious concerns expressed, and urgently address the issues as laid out in the Resolution adopted by Parliament."

back to news page