[autom.vertaling] Sancties van het bureaurisico's van de EU de regionale opnieuw (en)

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The EU's Committee of the Regions risks having its 2001 accounts sanctioned a second time after evidence of fraud and financial mismanagement were found by the EU anti-fraud office, OLAF.

This may have budgetary and political consequences on the EU body, which could affect its current demand for additional persons to cope with next year's EU enlargement.

A report by OLAF on this investigation has highlighted specific errors, irregularities and administrative failings with regards to particular tendering procedures and in relation to certain reimbursements of members' expenses.

Earlier this year, MEPs refused to approve the committee's 2001 accounts after the allegations first surfaced.

The Budgetary Control Committee in the European parliament is currently preparing a re-examination of the committees' finances and will vote again in December, but some MEPs feel that these recent revelations make approval of the accounts, this time around, unlikely.

"There is no way, if the European Parliament takes itself seriously, that discharge will be granted", Dutch Socialist MEP, Michiel van Hulten, told the EUobserver.

Mr Van Hulten also said that the committee's president himself, Sir Albert Bore, confirmed this morning that "endemic cronyism" existed two years ago in the Committee.

The Committee of the Regions is the youngest EU institution and its purpose is to give the local and regional authorities a voice in the EU.