Mr Blokland asked me how I could be certain that there would the same independence of supervisors in the candidate countries as we have ourselves. He is right to say that independent supervision in all candidate countries is of great importance. Furthermore, we have been examining the systems and the organisations of the candidate countries with the supervisors of all Member States over the past four years with precisely that aim in mind.
May I also say that quite considerable progress has been made by the candidate countries. We must realise they have come a long way and made quite considerable progress, even though not everything is as it should be in certain areas. Therefore we must monitor the developments in the candidate countries because there is an essential need for an independent regulatory and supervisory agency there. We have organised a programme of cooperation so that we can help candidate countries improve the quality of their supervision.

Frits Bolkestein