For those of you who missed it, yesterday the European Court of Auditors, for the tenth year in succession, refused to approve the EU`s annual accounts.
The Auditors` reasons were (a) that 93.4% of total spending was either unsafe or riddled with errors, (b) that, again, no reasonable assurances have been given that satisfactory systems of budget control are implemented, and (c) that spot checks found fraud or error in up to 25% of farm aid to member countries "but most abuses remain undiscovered"
A Senior Auditor described commission officials as "behaving like rats in a bag seeking to evade responsibility"
And these are just the benefits of EU membership
Oh dear! You're not Robert Kilroy-Silk in disguise are you?!? Is that why you haven't posted a photo? ;)
are those figures right??!! over 90%!! where did you find this Hugh? i haven't heard it on the news.....
just asked my other half who is a finance person-he says that someone at the eu lost their job after they raised these issues in public........
No Spurdie, I`m not Robert Kilroy Silk, I`m just a taxpayer who hates seeing his hard earned money pouring the drain.
Robert Kilroy Silk just seems happy to take his generous salary and allowances.
Kerry, the report is summarised in yesterday`s Telegraph. Your other half is half right - 2 people not one.
You will recall that immediately before the last lot of Commissioners were appointed the Euro Parliament had thrown out the previous lot because of incompetence and corruption, and our own dear Neil Kinnock was appointed Commissioner in charge of stopping the corruption, setting up proper systems of control, and generally getting a grip on things. None of these things were, of course, done, and the situation is as bad as ever, but he dismissed one female Auditor for "disloyalty to the Commission" after she published details of the corruption, and another Brussels official who published details was dismissed and has since been the subject of continual harassment by the Belgian Police on warrants issued by the Euro Security Police - arrested, house and office ransacked, documents impounded, interrogation etc.
And if we sign up to the Euro Constitution they`ll have the same powers over here as well.
showed other half your message, Hugh.
he takes particular interest in the economics etc. as it is his field.
he's just told me what he thinks of the common agricultural policy subsidies, fishing and such. i have to agree, and could write more, but must stop, as i can feel my blood pressure rising!
Kerry, I made a slight mistake when I said things were as bad as ever. In fact the figure of 93.4% of spending being unsafe is actually worse, being an increase over the previous year`s figure of 91%, which says a lot for Neil Kinnock`s efforts.
However, here are two interesting facts about the current gang of Commissioners appointed by Jose Manual Barroso:-
1. The French Commissioner - Jacques Barrot - was convicted of fraud in 2000, sentenced to 8 months suspended and banned from public office for 2 years. The fraud was in connection with raising party funds for Jacques Chirac, who promptly pardoned Barrot and made it a criminal offence to mention the case again in France.
2. The Estonian Commissioner Siim Kallas was a Soviet apparatchik for 20 years and was eventually convicted of `providing false information`. Inevitably, perhaps, Barroso has put him in charge of the Anti-Fraud campaign.
Something else for you to seethe about?
i really just cannot understand how people get away with things like this, when the 'ordinary man in the street' would not. i (obviously wrongly) assume that more power means more responsibility and scrutiny, but perhaps it should just be: more power=more power to deceive and corrupt-and absolute power corrupts absolutely?
i just cannot take them seriously. but, perhaps, i should?
and who is our representative-mandelson?! hardly squeaky clean himself!
do i recall some recent hoo-haa over another commissioner that someone wanted to appoint but no-one else wanted, there was some battle of wills before the candidate was replaced (italian? my mind is blank, i think i paid it cursory attention at the time-contempt only)?
(blood pressure alert again)
Someone mentioned fishing?
I'm afraid it's a pet hate of mine. And we all take our chaps' efforts so lightly. And expect it all to be dished up in the supermarket every day of the year. This is just one of a string of comments over the years from 'our' chap in Cornwall. Just happened to come in today. = Tim
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v164/photo04/fish.jpg
Tim, petty, isn't it, all rules and regs obstructing trade- i mean, 6 fish!?
really, this is not good for my blood pressure!! other half mentioned last night about fishing- spanish fisherman getting quotas off scotland that the scottish fisherman can't, because the spanish have over-fished their own.......
just why does the government think this is ok??
Because Tony Blair is a "poodle", Kerry! ;D We in this country tiptoe around everyone else while they trample all over us. Maybe we've had so much political correctness forced on us for so long, we are now afraid to say boo to a goose!
Kerry, the hoo-ha that you mentioned was over Rocco Buttiglione - the original Italian nominee for Justice and Civil Liberties. He was an ultra catholic with close connections to the Vatican with no hint of suspicion about him. The European ultra left managed to trap him into admitting that he didn`t altogether approve of homosexuality and single motherhood. Despite his assurances that this would not affect his impartiality in any way they succeeded in blocking the appointment of the new commission until Buttiglione was removed and replaced by Franco Frattini - Italy`s former Foreign Minister.
At the same time Latvia`s original nomination for tax affairs was also sacked for alleged Eurosceptic views and has been replaced by Laszlo Kovacs - a Hungarian ex-communist.
So now you know who`s going to be ruling us for the next few years.
hmm, i see that the barrot story has been in the news.......
not very impressive, is it?
Put it this way Kerry. Would you buy a used car from ANY of them?
nope! and you put it more politely than i would have, Hugh.
the phrase about **** up and brewery come to mind.
a right sordid saga from the whole lot of them.
the really sad thing is they have power!