EU AUDITORS BLAST BUDGET FAILINGS

London Telegraph ^ | 11/18/2003 | Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in Brussels

[JesseHousman]

The European Union is failing to keep track of huge annual subsidies, and 91 per cent of its budget is riddled with errors or cannot be verified, a financial watchdog said yesterday.

The European Court of Auditors refused to certify EU accounts for the ninth successive year, saying Brussels has failed to match reform rhetoric with a genuine change of culture. Abuse is said to be endemic in the Common Agricultural Policy, which still consumes almost half the £65 billion budget.

Checks on subsidy claims for suckler cows found that 50.2 per cent of animals in Portugal and 31.2 per cent in Italy were false. The "error rate" in forage and crop acreage was 89.7 per cent in Luxembourg, 42.9 per cent in Sweden, 34.5 per cent in France and 19.2 per cent in Britain, despite increased use of satellite photography to spot fraud.

The court said it was almost impossible to track funds once they had been handed over to member states, which administer 80 per cent of the budget. Money also disappears into Russia, Central Asia, the Balkans and developing countries.

Budget controls in Brussels itself are criticised. The report says the European Commission has still not switched to the sort of modern accounting system used by the British Government and World Bank, making it impossible to know if transactions have been "fully and correctly recorded".

The court suggested that EU staff were abusing the disability system on a large scale, costing taxpayers £54 million a year. Half the claimants had psychological or stress-related complaints. A court official said: "These are not coal miners or deep-sea fishermen. It's not normal for so many to retire for ill-health."

Most of the invalids are in their 30s or 40s, securing life-time pensions worth 70 per cent of the final retirement-age salaries.

The court alsoIt's not normal for so many to retire for ill-health."

Most of the invalids are in their 30s or 40s, securing life-time pensions worth 70 per cent of the final At present, the European Parliament pays two thirds of the pension cost, with the rest often paid from an MEP's office allowance - another perk worth £120,000 a year. British Euro-MPs are said to be leading culprits in using the fund to employ spouses and children as aides. They also receive a tax-free attendance fee of £160 a day in Brussels and Strasbourg, and are reimbursed for full business air fares on a mileage basis, even if they take cheap flights.

• EU foreign ministers agreed yesterday to create an arms procurement agency in Brussels to boost European industry and co-ordinate efforts to plug the gaps in European defence. It will be headed by Javier Solana, the EU's foreign policy chief.

[JesseHousman]

Money also disappears into Russia, Central Asia, the Balkans and developing countries.

EU staff were abusing the disability system on a large."It's not normal for so many to retire for ill-health."

Most of the invalids are in their 30s or 40s, securing life-time pensions worth 70 per cent of the final

It's not normal for so many to retire for ill-health."Most of the invalids are in their 30s or 40s, securing life-time pensions worth 70 per cent of the final...salaries."

The above excerpts say it all: European nations had better run from this monolith that has not only robbed each of them of their national hertage, but the promise is there to confiscate much more.

[.cnI redruM]

The EU will lead Europe to it's grave. They could have looked at Eastern Europe and COMECON, and seen what socialism does, but no, they were too intellectual.

[2banana]

The future of the EU - It will only get worse.

A government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take away everything you have...

"If the government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it
invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy. To
declare that in the administration of criminal law, the end justifies
the means...would bring terrible retribution."
-----(Justice Brandeis, J., dissenting) Olmstead v. United States, 277 U.S.
438, 485 (1928)

"A Democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of Government. It can only exist until the voters discover they can vote themselves largess out of the public treasury. From that moment on the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a Democracy always collapses over a loose fiscal policy, always to be followed by a Dictatorship----Alexander Fraser Tytler, 18th century historian.

[Tacis]

But, if you're 5 minutes late or 10 Euros short on a bribe, payoff or kickback to any government Eurinal, they'll let you know about it immediately!!

[Victoria_R]

"If the government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy. To declare that in the administration of criminal law, the end justifies the means...would bring terrible retribution." -----(Justice Brandeis, J., dissenting) Olmstead v. United States, 277 U.S. 438, 485 (1928)

Oh, wow, Justice Brandeis has met Governor Kempthorne and friends.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

The court suggested that EU staff were abusing the disability system on a large scale....

...Euro-MPs are said to be ... using the fund to employ spouses and children as aides. They also receive a tax-free attendance fee of £160 a day in Brussels and Strasbourg, and are reimbursed for full business air fares on a mileage basis, even if they take cheap flights.

Sounds like the Great and General Court, [ i.e., the Massachusetts State Legislature].