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TAXPAYERS ASSOCIATION OF EUROPE

Laudation Bodo Hombach

Presentation of the Taxpayers Award 2002

"The European Bull"

Brussels, July 9, 2002

Bodo Hombach, who is a qualified telecommunication technician and who obtained his „Abitur“ through evening classes, financed his first car by doing a newspaper round. Later on, he worked for Preussag for nine years, eight of which as a manager, charged with industrial installations and steel trade. Before he took office as Minister of Economy of Nordrhein-Westfalen in 1998, from 1994 to 1998 he acted as a spokesperson for the SPD in economics and political matters in the „Landtag“.

These examples clearly demonstrate that Bodo Hombach has always been confronted with the economic challenges of planning and monetary considerations. Bodo Hombach has always fought inefficiency. It is not about merely fulfilling tasks yet about the most efficient use of the available means to reach a certain goal. Such an extraordinary economic personal achievement is honoured today by presenting him with the „European Bull“, a symbol of extraordinary creativity as well as the European taxpayers award 2002: the economical use of tax money for his activities as a special EU co-ordinator for East Europe.

In June 1999, Bodo Hombach accepted this position, created to overcome the crisis in the „new countries“ of former Yugoslavia in the EU, and he did so in a relatively calm way and with great enthusiasm.

The economic and social reconstruction of the Balkans could and can only be obtained by creating democratic structures and a close collaboration amongst these countries themselves.

Bodo Hombach recognized that at an early stage. He repeatedly stated that the EU would only voluntarily intervene when the related nations would change their mutual relationships. "You cannot change your neighbours, you must change yourself, only then will there be money“, he explained to the heads of government of these countries.

In order to introduce this policy, a change was required in the concept of the Commission and the World Bank. Hombach was successful introducing his concept only to accept requests for support that are related to two or more countries. Once, he compared himself to the conductor of a stability orchestra, that is already playing an excellent melody, yet lacking harmony.

He was very thorough where the conversion of projects is concerned: he did not negotiate bilateral agreements for vague ideas but for real and cross-border projects. The donor countries were not simply asked for money; they were asked to support selected plans, precisely developed by the countries of that region. There are plenty of examples of these projects: power plants, toll systems, roads, railroads and harbour access as well as the construction of a Danube bridge between Bulgaria and Romania, for which the EU had already been striving for 20 years but in vain.

In return for the collaboration efforts, the EU gave the countries of that region financial support of 4.66 billion euro until 2006. On March 30, 2000 the EU also decided to support the so-called Quick Start Package (the above mentioned projects) for a total amount of 2.4 billion euro. One year after that decision, on March 30, 2001, 201 of a total of 244 projects had been started in South East Europe. That was the start of Bodo Hombach’s concept. This phase can be considered a break-through for the EU stability treaty for the Balkans.

But the measures of the EU stability treaty go further than that: via a system of 71 bilateral treaties, Hombach organised a South East European free-trade zone with member nations Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Albania, Romania and Slovenia. They were hindered by private partnerships between a number of countries from the Balkans and EU member nations. Germany mainly supported the Croatian people whereas France had a partnership with the Serbs. Through a successful co-ordination of the distribution of the available means, they managed to turn the stability treaty into an economic catalyst for the Balkans.

We should not ignore a certain rivalry between the stability treaty co-ordinator, Hombach, and the „bureaucrats of Brussels“. He openly declared war to slowness. "When Europe fails“, special EU co-ordinator for the Balkans and the stability treaty said, according to an article in „Der Spiegel“, „then that is not due to failing political insight yet to the inefficiency of the apparatus ". For him, political will was not always sufficiently followed by actions.

For critical contemporary colleagues, these statements were reason to charge an auditor with the analysis of the fall of the EU stability treaty. Especially in times of tight budgets and economic loss, attention should be paid to by who, how and why money is being used; a financial conscience is absolutely necessary.

In addition to the routine check of the use of the allocated funds and the functionality of the internal financial controls, the accountant also was to clarify whether the money was used in an appropriate way, whether more money could be saved in administration and logistics and whether purchases were paid at the right price regarding market conditions.

The result of the audit shows great confidence in the Brussels administration of Bodo Hombach and is the main reason for his honouring today. The report says that the administration of the stability treaty is developed so well that „it could immediately take over the management of other special EU envoys ". During the audited years of 1999 and 2000, the administration, currently employing 32 persons, used its means – 850,000 and 2,485,000 euro – in accordance with the legal and treaty principles.

The special co-ordinator and his co-workers saved taxes on their trips and conferences so that the costs, the auditors say, have remained far below average.

In the report of the auditor, it is the preciseness of Bodo Hombach that would be fatal, if one could express it like that:

The administrative cost, in which private conversations are filtered out of the telephone bill and charged to the co-workers personally, is higher than the costs for the private calls: 14 512 euro compared to 11 769 euro. Hombach should now decide whether or not to continue that system in view of a cost-benefit analysis. His reply to this reprimand was: „I like such reprimands“.

Hombach’s success, officially confirmed by the auditors, is mainly the result of his pragmatic attitude and his product and goal oriented work.

Yet he does not consider himself to be a 100% „party soldier“. For example: when he worked in Nordrhein-Westfalen, he changed the campaign „Wir Bayern und unsere Partei“ (We, Bavaria, and our party), a hit for the CSU, into the campaign „Wir in NRW und unsere Partei SPD“ (We in NRW and our party, SPD). Heiner Geisler once said that he was the most dangerous weapon of the SPD.

In accordance with his image of the „firm worker“, only the working goal was important for him. Two examples describe his working method best: in his Brussels office, for a long time he had to make do with an old writing desk and after months of asking for a fax machine, he allegedly said to his co-workers: "We are not fighting for a fax, we are fighting for peace in the Balkans“.

Following that idea, in the future we must try to bring the countries of South East Europe closer to the EU. The stability treating must not become a regional alternative to EU membership.

Bodo Hombach has considerable contributed to peace in the form of the democratic changes in the Balkans and the subscription by the Republic of Yugoslavia to the EU stability treaty in October 2000.

And, back to our subject of today, mister Hombach, you have efficiently and in a non-bureaucratic way used tax money for the peace process in the Balkans. You and your excellent administration have done a good office to the European taxpayers. Mister von Hohenau already stated that the wasting of public means can be compared with tax evasion by taxpayers.

[Congratulations and thank you]

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