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Stellungnahme des EU-Parlaments
European Parliament - Committee on Budgetary Control - Committee on Budgets
This morning the political coordinators of the Committee on Budgetary Control and the Committee on Budgets met in an extraordinary meeting to consider new information that the City of Strasbourg may have charged the European Parliament inflated rent over many years.
The standing draftsperson on buildings policy of the EP's Budgets Committee, Jan MULDER outlined the available facts. In response, Gérard ONESTA, Vice-President responsible for the European Parliament's buildings' policy, and Julian PRIESTLEY, the European Parliament's Secretary General, informed the political coordinators about events surrounding the planned purchase of two buildings by the European Parliament (named "Winston Churchill" and "Salvador de Madariaga") and current rental conditions in Strasbourg.
As a result, Markus FERBER, as the draftsperson for the Committee on Budgetary Control, will propose to the European Parliament on Thursday that the vote on the implementation of the European Union's general budget for the financial year 2004 (Section I: European Parliament) be postponed, awaiting the outcome of inquiries into the use of the rent Parliament paid to the city of Strasbourg. The outcome of the inquiries may also have repercussions on Parliament's intention to become owner of these buildings in Strasbourg.
Members of the committees were unanimous in their demand for utmost transparency in the use of public money, and in constituting a Working Group
- called on the City of Strasbourg to give access to all financial and other documents with regard to the above mentioned buildings, linking the city to the European Parliament and the building society SCI-Erasme; failure to comply with this request within an appropriate time scale would lead to the European Parliament lodging a complaint with the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) and call on the responsible French audit institution to verify the City of Strasbourg's book keeping;
- called on the competent French authorities to support Parliament's endeavour to bring all relevant information out in the open;
- called on the European Parliament's administration to reconstitute the history of the EP's contractual relationship with the City of Strasbourg since 1979, and refer any substantiated allegations of irregularities to OLAF;
- called on the European Court of Auditors to finalize its audit of expenditure incurred for the purchase and leasing of buildings, from the aspects of legality, regularity and sound financial management at an early stage, and, if possible, present an interim report by July 2006;
- called on the European Parliament's competent body not to sign any purchasing contract until the open questions have been answered;
- welcomed the fact that the EP's Secretary General as the responsible authorising officer had frozen all rental payments to the City of Strasbourg;
- emphasized that Parliament's competent committees will carefully scrutinize all information made available until 6 July 2006 in view to taking a decision on Parliament's 2004 discharge.
Erschienen als Presseaussendung des EU-Parlaments, 25.4.2006.
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