Pino Arlacchi, an Italian Liberal member of the European Parliament and rapporteur for the DAF delegation to Afghanistan, firmly stated that something like 70-80 percent of the international aid for Afghanistan is not reaching those who most need it. Among such funds lay EU means, with an estimated 27 million Euros being granted over the last four years. The scenario is all but positive, as Mr Arlacchi refers to the corruption, waste and withholding of funds by foreign governments and international organisations. Moreover, the 27 million Euros are just a small percentage of the 34 billion dollars that were supposed to have reached Afghanistan over the past eight years. Most of this money, according to the Liberal MEP, “is clawed back by the donor countries or got lost in waste and corruption”. The worries become embarrassing when French newspaper, Liberation, reports that the EU’s 27 million funds that aim to ensure security to its mission in Afghanistan have been completely mismanaged in a melt down tender affair. This is not new news for Mr Arlacchi, who in a public hearing at the EP said: “This is a case of mismanagement and waste of public funds that makes the implementation of stringent and rigorous form of control more urgent the ever”. Mr Arlacchi, former senior UN official and expert on organised crime, firmly believes that it is really now necessary to investigate all the EU expenditure in Afghanistan.
The worries become embarrassing when French newspaper, Liberation, reports that the EU’s 27 million funds that aim to ensure security to its mission in Afghanistan have been completely mismanaged in a melt down tender affair.
Nevertheless, these alarming findings could not have come at a better time. This week, the debate on the functions of the future European External Action Service (EEAS) is taking place. Following the first draft proposal by Lady Ashton, the High Representative of the Union and Vice President of the Commission, MEPs could not help but express their disappointment for the bad consideration reserved to the EP in such a procedure. Once again the Commission and the Council are underestimating the role of the EP in setting up the new EU service. Due to its particular nature, the EEAS is neither an institution nor an external agency. In their evaluating report, the rapporteurs of the Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Committee on Constitutional Affairs, the parliamentary committees directly involved in the procedure, expressed their worries concerning the misunderstanding of the role of the EP. Indeed, as the guarantor of the EU’s general budget, the EP is called to watch over all the spending of the European Union. Some institutions however, like the Commission itself, do need the EP’s green light for their own budgets – it is called the ’discharge’ procedure. For such reasons, MEPs are asking for similar powers over the new EEAS, in order to enhance its financial functioning in the respect of the general financial interest of the EU.
The above mentioned scandalous case of mismanagement of EU funds clearly shows how much an internal and independent control at the EU level is needed.
The above mentioned scandalous case of mismanagement of EU funds clearly shows how much an internal and independent control at the EU level is needed. So far the EP has played a key role in preserving the EU’s financial interests, being able to face even the Commission in case of mismanagement. Granting the EP with the prerogatives of the budgetary authority – including an explicit right of discharge – is to be fully safeguarded. Never after such scandals has the EU a need for full budgetary transparency regarding the establishment plan of the EEAS, above all in fields like development and humanitarian aid. The EEAS cannot allow itself to waste EU public money and to take part in this sort of international corruption. Here again we see a chance for the EU to rise as a model for the whole world.
In one EU document can be read: “The EEAS is essential in order to ensure that the Union’s external relations are more coherent and efficient and that their profile is raised. The establishment of the EEAS will enable the Union to raise its visibility in foreign policy in a way that is commensurate with its existing international trade and economic status and enhance EU´s capacity to act effectively in the international arena and pursue its values as laid down in Article 21 TEU”.
Let’s not waste this chance.
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