Europees Parlement wil aparte rapportages over EU-gelden voor Bulgarije en Roemenië (en)
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Members of the European Parliament's budgetary control committee are likely to ask the EU commission in March to deliver regular updates on the spending of EU funds in Bulgaria and Romania.
"We are left with the impression that we haven't been informed correctly about the pre-accession funds spent in Bulgaria and Romania," Herbert Bosch, head of the parliament's budgetary control committee told EUobserver.
His committee discussed several draft reports on Tuesday, as part of the EU's 2007 budget analysis, including documents of the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) and the Court of Auditors, which show a high number of irregularities in the bloc's two newest members, which joined 2007.
According to a draft report on the protection of EU's financial interests and fight against fraud, "The reliability of reported information [on pre-accession funds] is the worst in Bulgaria and Romania."
"We will ask the commission to issue quarterly reports on the spending of EU funds in Bulgaria and Romania," Mr Bosch said, adding that this initiative will be part of the general oversight that the parliament has over the EU budget.
The proposal will be voted on in the committee next month and will be included in the 2007 budget analysis to be approved by the plenum in April, he said, noting that there was a "large majority" in favour of this idea, with the exception of MEPs from the two countries.
Problematic pre-accession funding
Another draft report discussed on Tuesday was pre-accession funding of the current candidate and potential candidate countries in the Western Balkans and Mr Bosch said he and his colleagues had the impression of a "déjà vu", because the same problems that were encountered in Bulgaria and Romania's case appeared again.
"It is clear that Bulgaria and Romania were too weak and slow in preparing their accession, and there were big delays in assigning the projects. We detected now the same weaknesses with other countries and we can't let this happen again, otherwise we should stop payments, or at least slow them down," he said.
The commission last year suspended Bulgaria's pre-accession funds worth €500 million due to fraud and corruption. Romania too saw agricultural funds worth €142 million suspended in June, due to irregularities in the paying system. The money has not been unfrozen since.
Tough stance on corruption
Meanwhile, some MEPs are already calling for tougher sanctions against the two countries after the European Commission in recent reports said that Romania had gone backwards and Bulgaria was not delivering in the fight against corruption and organised crime.
"It is not the first time that the two countries get such reports. I believe the Parliament should give a clear sign, both to the Council and the Commission that EU institutions will be very tough and strict to Bulgaria and Romania," Portuguese conservative MEP Jose Ribeiro Castro said at a press conference marking the launch of an anti-corruption petition.
"If the countries, two years after accession, continue not to perform well, the EU has to give a strong sign, because now, all the political speech has been spent with Bulgaria and Romania," he said.
For Transparency International, (TI) a watchdog on anti-corruption matters, the reports prove that the commission should continue to monitor these countries until "concrete and irreversible results in the fight against corruption" are met.
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