Commission spent Baltic aid wrongly, claim MEPs

Date: 17/05/01

By John Shelley

THE chairman of the European Parliament's powerful budgets committee, Terry Wynn, has written to the EU executive accusing it of misspending aid for Baltic states.

He has warned the European Commission that cash earmarked to help develop democracy in Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia and Poland, must be spent on the projects for which it was intended.

MEPs say money set aside to help these countries build up political parties and non-governmental organisations has been channelled into general infrastructure projects such as road and rail-building.

"What the Commission is doing now is distorting the political will of the Parliament," said Swedish socialist Göran Färm, the MEP whose complaint prompted Wynn into action.

The €16 million special fund for the Baltic states was set up at the request of the Parliament.

Färm says that rather then invest in the myriad small projects needed to encourage democracy, the Commission has lumped the money together with other much larger funds for supporting environmental and transport infrastructure.

"The major problem they've had is administrative," said Färm.

"The Commission does not want to take on too many little projects.

"It was the specific wish of the Parliament that the money should be used on smaller projects, but the Commission seems to prefer to just take the easy option."

By not spending the aid package in the way it was intended the Commission is not only breaking the rules but it is also damaging the preparation of these countries for enlargement, says Färm.

"It's extremely important for these new accession countries to build up their political and democratic structures.

"They are already doing it on the national level but it needs to be done locally as well," he said. "We could make it happen so much more quickly if we were to spend these resources in the right way."

The chairman of the European Parliament's powerful budgets committee, Terry Wynn, has written to the EU executive accusing it of misspending aid for Baltic states. He has warned the European Commission that cash earmarked to help develop democracy in Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia and Poland, must be spent on the projects for which it was intended.