BUDGET: REDING DENIES ANY RESPONSIBILITY IN EU PUBLICATIONS OFFICE MANAGEMENT.

Interviewed on November 24 by the European Parliament's Committee on Budgetary Control, as part of the sequel to the EU budget discharge procedure for 2001, the European Commissioner for Culture and Education, Viviane Reding, has denied any personal responsibility in the management of the EU Office for Official Publications. She points to the inter-institutional character of the Office's management committee, which comprises Secretaries-General or their representatives from all the EU institutions. In the light of this analysis, she says she played her policy role quite properly. She played this part in her capacity as Commissioner responsible for the Office, by virtue of the European Commission organisation chart. Last June 2 she called for the Office's financial channels to be audited. This resulted in the publication of a mid-term report on June 16, then a final report on November 20. This, she says, showed that there were no irregularities, as any money the Office invoiced for was directly paid into the General Budget via the institution or Commission Directorate-General that commissioned the contract. "I believe I took all the steps required for any Office-related issues to be settled and all the necessary measures for the European Parliament to be notified quickly and on a transparent basis", says Commissioner Reding, adding that "I am not aware of any irregularity in the current management of the Office". "I am not in favour of a reform for the sake of reform but if the European Parliament wants to reform the Office, let it make proposals that we can debate."

Paulo Casaca (PES, Portugal), the Committee on Budgetary Control's rapporteur for...

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