Debate contributions by Olivier CHASTEL

Mr President, Mr President of the Court of Auditors, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, the Court of Auditors' annual report confirmed all our concerns: an overall error rate of 3,6 % and even 5,7 % for cohesion funds. Years pass and problems remain. In addition, we know that the Commission aims to import the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) model into the Multiannual Financial Framework. Here too, the utmost caution is required. While the RRF model has been able to provide some flexibility, many shortcomings are also to be regretted, in particular as regards the detection of errors, fraud at national level, as well as in the often unclear definition of the milestones to be achieved. More than ever, we need to pay attention to the establishment of an effective regulatory framework, including through a systematic digitalisation of processes, controls, the use of data mining and better cooperation with Member States.

Mr President, Mr President of the Court of Auditors, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, during the 2023 Commission discharge exercise, we talked a lot about NGOs and other peripheral subjects, but for my part, I would like to refocus the debate on the worrying figures provided by the European Court of Auditors, whose quality of work I once again welcome: an overall higher error rate of 5,6 % than before; a stratospheric error rate for the cohesion funds at 9.3%, and the amount of the remainder to be liquidated, which continues to run wild, at 543 billion. All this, in the end, without much reaction from the Commission to remedy it. In addition, during this mandate, I will remain attentive to the announced modernisation of the European budget. Yes, we need to make it more flexible, more flexible, less administratively burdensome, but this cannot be done at the expense of robust controls on the traceability of funds disbursed, their performance and their impact on our economic growth. We need a clear and systematic framework for early detection of fraud and error through the widespread use of data extraction tools. More than ever, every euro spent must be spent with intelligence, efficiency and pragmatism.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, Europe can no longer remain a spectator of its own vulnerability. We all remember the shortages that have hit our continent in recent years: Amoxicillin, cancer treatments, paracetamol, anesthetics... So many essential drugs that have been sorely missed, in our hospitals as in our pharmacies, which has put lives in danger. These stock-outs did not only affect rare treatments; they also concerned essential medicines, the availability of which should have been obvious. For too long, we have let our critical drugs become hostages to relocations and geopolitical tensions. To depend on a few factories on the other side of the world is to accept impotence in the face of urgency. The Critical Medicines Act must therefore build genuine European pharmaceutical sovereignty. This will require ambitious legislation: strategic relocation of production, establishment of security stocks and enhanced coordination between Member States. This is not just an industrial issue; it is also a public health imperative.

Mr President, Commissioner, hospitals are under stress, nursing homes are overwhelmed, medical deserts are spreading: this acute shortage of staff jeopardises the quality of care and access to treatment for millions of citizens. Across Europe, our health systems are suffering from the same emergency, the dramatic shortage of caregivers. 1.2 million is the number of doctors, nurses and midwives that the EU lacks on the ground in order to provide quality health care. The causes are known: ageing of the population, difficult working conditions, unreplaced departures. Result: exhausted caregivers, patients waiting and vocations dying out. Faced with this challenge, no country has the capacity to act alone. We need a strong European response, strengthening training and recognition of qualifications and improving working conditions. Innovation, including artificial intelligence, can represent a real opportunity to speed up certain procedures, including screening, but also to reduce the administrative burden that rests on the shoulders of our caregivers to free up medical time to refocus on care and on the essentials, patients.

Mr President, Mr President of the Court of Auditors, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, the annual report of the Court of Auditors has amplified many of my concerns: an ever-increasing overall error rate of 5.6%, a stratospheric error rate for cohesion funds of 9.3% and the amount remaining to be settled which continues its mad rush and peaks at EUR 543 billion. I also read, like everyone else, that the Commission is planning to modernise the European budget in order to make it more flexible and reduce administrative burdens. We will see what happens, but Parliament must remain attentive to a clear, precise and effective regulatory framework, in order to be able to systematically detect all errors and fraud, in particular through a systematic digitalisation of processes and controls, the use of data extraction tools and better cooperation between Member States. We needed it yesterday. We will need it even more tomorrow, given the sums at stake with new instruments such as NextGenerationEU and the new priorities for reindustrialisation, defence and support to Ukraine.