| Parliament links budget approval to agreement on EEAS organisation |
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Ashton’s controversial current proposals make the EEAS a partially intergovernmental body which would take over operations currently performed by the Commission, including parts of development policy. In a poorly attended debate on the budget on Wednesday 21 April in Strasbourg, Conservative MEP Ryszard Czarnecki said: “The Council leaves a lot to be desired when we talk about budgetary matters.” “Certain aspects of the common foreign and security policy are still not clear, the budgetary measures and accounts are still not clear,” he added. Centre-right MEP Véronique Mathieu singled out the UK-based European Police College (CEPOL) for criticism, which is currently being investigated for fraud allegations. “The audit carried out shows there are irregularities, blatant ones, in terms of administration and finance, and that's why we would like to defer discharge,” said Ms Mathieu. Sources:
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MEPs have affirmed that the European Parliament’s approval of the budget and staff allocations for the new European External Action Service (EEAS) is to be conditional on approval of Baroness Ashton’s final proposal for its set-up. MEPs’ key concern is that the EEAS must be under the authority of the European Commission, and be subject to parliamentary scrutiny. The group leaders and the rapporteurs working on the EEAS have said that it is unlikely Parliament will have time to scrutinise the full package of proposals before summer.
