Kinnock wil permanente eurocommissaris voor hervorming van de EU-instellingen (en)

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Administrative reform Commissioner Neil Kinnock will recommend that the internal reform portfolio is carried on under the next Commission - which starts in November.

The internal reform portfolio was created after the resignation of the previous commission in 1999 following claims of nepotism and mismanagement.

Speaking to journalists, Mr Kinnock said that "any substantial modernisation process requires continuation and is always capable of refinement and improvement".

"It would therefore be a mistake for anybody to think job done. By definition, effective reform is never job done", he stressed.

According to the Reform Progress Report for the year 2003, adopted today by the Commission, just three of the 98 Action Plan commitments remain to be fully implemented and that arrangements are in place to achieve that target in 2004.

However, the Eurostat scandal has shed a bad light on the Commission's reform pledge and led the Commission to reinforce measures in response to irregularities found in the EU statistical office.

The Commission is establishing a Group of relevant services made up of the Secretariat General, and the directorate general of Administration, budget and internal audit service, to ensure that all relevant information or allegations of fraud and irregularities are collected from all sources and rapidly analysed and communicated to the Commission President and the Commissioners responsible.

Changes have also been proposed to improve the information flow between the EU anti-fraud office OLAF and the EU institutions.