Budget discharged without a hitch

Date: 05/04/01

MEPS this week agreed to sign-off the EU's expenditure for 1999 in a move that will be taken as a victory for Romano Prodi's administration.

For the first time in four years, Parliamentarians voted to discharge the budget without first making the Commission sweat it out by forcing one or more postponements.

The move comes despite a litany of past cases of abuse and bad management and some factions in the Parliament attacking Prodi's team for a lack of openness.

Prodi only came to power in autumn 1999 and so much of the expenditure for the year in question was spent under the previous Santer Commission.

Dutch Liberal MEP Jan Mulder said that the real test would come with the examination of the accounts for 2000.

MEPs have agreed to sign-off the EU's expenditure for 1999 in a move that will be taken as a victory for Romano Prodi's administration.