Esther de Lange heeft deze week Griekenland bezocht met de budgetcontrolecommissie van het Europees Parlement om de uitgave van Europese gelden te controleren.

Het ging om een vervolgbezoek nadat ze eerder in 2007 het land bezocht namens het Europees Parlement. Er is vooruitgang gesignaleerd bij de controle op de uitgave van landbouwgelden, dankzij de druk van onder anderen de Europese Commissie en het Europees Parlement. Er zijn echter ook nog grote tekortkomingen bij de controle op de uitgave van overige Europese gelden aan het licht gekoment. Het is belangrijk dat Griekenland net als Nederland via een nationale managementverklaring verantwoording aflegt over het gebruik van Europese gelden. Esther de Lange is vooral bezorgd over politieke benoemingen in topministeries, de rekenkamer en het statistisch bureau.

Persbericht van de EVP Fractie van de budgetcontrolecommissie van het Europees Parlement:

Greece has to do more to rectify shortcomings in management of EU funds

"It is high time Greek authorities deliver effective actions to improve the implementation and control system of EU funds" - EPP Members of the European Parliament's Budgetary Control Committee said after a fact-finding mission to Athens, where Esther De Lange, Ingeborg Grässle, Monika Hohlmeier and Marian Jean Marinescu met high ranking Greek government officials between 27 and 29 April.

The visit of the members of the Budgetary Control committee to Greece follows a previous visit in May 2007. The exchange of views focused on the functioning of the IACS-database for agricultural funding (IACS = Integrated Administrative and Control system), the management of Structural funds and Solidarity fund programmes, the independence and integrity of Greek statistics, and OLAF-related issues in Greece.

According to the most recent findings, in 2010 the country faces penalties of about 130 million Euros (of 346.5 million Euros penalties in total for all Member states in agriculture only) for persistent weaknesses in the IACS system. So far, the EU refused to pay out around 955 million Euros in agricultural funds to Greece due to failures in the IACS-database. Inconsistencies in the management of the cohesion funds led to another 881.24 million Euros being withheld or recovered by the EU from 2000 to 2006.

Esther De Lange, Ingeborg Grässle, Monika Hohlmeier and Marian Jean Marinescu urged the Greek audit bodies to issue national audit certificates of the management for EU funds. "Greece should issue a national management declaration signed at an appropriate political level and certified by the national supreme audit body. In addition, the regularity and legality of the calculation and contribution of the own resources made available must be also confimed. As regards cooperation with the European anti-fraud body, Greece has communicated 96 cases to OLAF in 2008, which does not point towards a coherent reporting system".

The EPP Members also expressed their deep concern about the proven manipulation of financial statistics and tax evasion in Greece. MEPs drew the attention to the significant effect in terms of costs that this has on Greece’s budget, and called for investigations of the manipulation of macroeconomic data. "It should be clearly indicated where the institutional responsibility for shortcomings rests. As a member of the Economic and Monetary Union, Greece shares the responsibility for the stability of the common currency as well as the financial stability of the Union as a whole."

"Once credibility is lost, it is extremely difficult to restore confidence", the EPP members warned. "According to the 2009 Eurobarometer survey, 98 % of Greek citizens consider that corruption is a major problem in their country. Widespread public-sector corruption throughout the administration is deeply rooted" - EPP Members noted. This was also recognised by the Prime Minister of Greece in an interview with the Financial Times. "Reducing bureaucracy is a step in the right direction, but it is not a general remedy, and it should be complemented by other measures to eradicate corruption", Members of the delegation noted. MEPs stressed that staff involved in the management of European funds must be excepted from cost-cutting measures in order to ensure the maintenance and integrity of the management structures.

"Instead of repeated promises for the future, the Greek government should now put words into action. We hope we do not have to come back to Greece in another three years time"- concluded the MEPs.