13
Mar
2024
Watch
Allegations of corruption and misuse of EU funds in Spain during the pandemic (topical debate)
Mr President, Commissioner, dear President-in-Office of the Council, ladies and gentlemen! It is already worrying what you get from Spain in the Koldo case. It is probably about orders of magnitude that affect European funds of up to almost 18 million – and that is already a lot of money. And I now have three very concrete demands. First of all: The Spanish government should work much more closely and better with the European Public Prosecutor’s Office. It cannot be that the European Public Prosecutor’s Office does not get it from the Spanish Public Prosecutor’s Office, but through journalists and whistleblowers – this is unacceptable. We have the European Public Prosecutor’s Office to protect the financial interests of the European Union, and there is a legal obligation to pass on such cases to the EPPO. I expect the Spanish government to do that. The second question that arises for me comes from the delegation with which we travelled to Spain: We want to know the final recipients. And we don't want to read from the Spanish government or from other governments that the Ministry of Transport gets so many millions for mobility. Or that in relation to an agency that has already been noticed by corruption, you only get the information: It receives 957 million or 954 million – no project, no company, no final recipient. I expect that we will finally get to read the final recipients and not the intermediate stations that redistribute. And last point: Infidelity should not be worth it. Legislation must punish infidelity and fraud instead of making it amnesty.