EU budget report to be published today amid accusations of waste
10 November 2008
The European Court of Auditors will today publish its annual report on the EU’s accounts. As in previous years, the Auditors are expected to highlight widespread problems with fraud and mismanagement in the EU’s spending programmes. The News of the World reported on Open Europe’s briefing published yesterday detailing 100 examples of misuse of EU money. Examples include projects popularising the tango in
Open Europe Research Director Mats Persson is quoted in the Mail arguing that, “EU funds are supposed to help create jobs and boost Europe's competitiveness, but far too often money is being wasted on projects ranging from the inefficient to the downright bizarre…Surely, while facing a recession, we can think of better ways to spend £100 billion a year.”
Taxpayers’ associations from across Europe have an open letter in the Telegraph, calling it “disgraceful” that EU accounts have never received the “declaration of assurance” that has been required since 1994.
The Mail writes that many of the problems of mismanagement stem from the Common Agricultural Policy and the Structural Funds programme. Dutch Member of the Court of Auditors Maarten Engwirda is quoted on the Dutch news website NU arguing that, “mistakes in the agricultural spending have been reduced, but with regards to regional funds the margin of mistakes in 2006 was still 12 percent”. The site also reports that European Commissioner Siim Kallas had set the goal in 2004 for the accounts to be approved by 2007.
Marta Andreassen, writing in the Times, argues that auditors have been saying for years that “most of the payments made by the Commission from its £70 billion-a-year budget cannot be deemed legal or regular.”
Open Europe Press Release Mail Nu.nl Times Telegraph Open Europe briefing: "100 Examples of EU Fraud and Waste"
EUobserver reports that EU leaders have agreed on a set of principles that should guide future talks on the reform of the global financial architecture, urging more regulation. "No financial institution, no market segmentation and no jurisdiction must escape proportionate and adequate regulation or at least oversight," states the document adopted at an extraordinary summit on Friday (7 November). European Voice notes that, according to French President Nicolas Sarkozy, credit rating agencies and hedge funds are particularly likely to be targeted by new regulation.
Revised accounting standards, an early warning system to tackle risks and a central role for the International Monetary Fund (IMF) "in a more efficient financial architecture", and an overhaul pay policy for company executives. EU leaders also endorsed a statement that within 100 days of the G-20 talks in
In Volkskrant, Sarkozy is quoted as saying “the world will have to get used to it that the EU now speaks with one voice”.
Saturday’s Guardian reported that Nicolas Sarkozy said on Friday that the European Commission would table proposals on a coordinated economic strategy for
The article notes that a more detailed French statement for EU action had to be watered down in the face of opposition from
Open
In an op-ed on Project Syndicate, former German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer argues that Sarkozy’s proposals for an economic government on the eurozone “was nothing but a hidden attack against EU members’ annual fiscal-deficit ceiling of 3% of GDP and worse, against the ECB’s independence.”
Project Syndicate FT Le Monde WSJ Guardian Guardian 2 European Voice EUobserver EUobserver2 AFP European Voice FT NRC Volkskrant Euractiv WSJ BBC Westminster Hour
Wallstrom: We must respect No but all eyes are on
In an interview with the Sunday Business Post, the Commissioner for Communications, Margot Wallstrom, who will be visiting
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Ban on votes for prisoners is illegal and could invalidate next elections under European Convention on Human Rights, say MPs
The Government must give prisoners the right to vote at the next general election or the poll will be illegal under the European Convention on Human Rights, the Observer reported. The Observer quotes Parliament’s Joint Committee on Human Rights, who have warned Ministers that there is a “significant risk that the next general election will take place in a way that fails to comply with the convention” and that prisoners will be “unlawfully disenfranchised” without a change in the law.
Since the law was implemented
A spokeswoman for the Ministry of Justice said: “Prisoner voting rights is a sensitive and complex issue, and we need to look very carefully at what the right approach to prisoner enfranchisement in the UK is and at how it would be implemented.”
EU renewable targets meet fresh challenges and higher costs in Britain
The Times reports that BP announced last week that it was abandoning the domestic wind energy industry altogether in search of higher returns in the
The paper on Saturday reported the projected cost of one project, the London Array, has soared from £1 billion in 2003 to £3 billion. It noted that the Government wants to build an unprecedented 33 gigawatts of wind power capacity by 2020 to help to meet targets set by the EU, but questions are arising over whether the 15,000 turbines will ever be built.
Mandelson did discuss EU policy with Russian oligarch
According to a report in the Telegraph, Business Secretary Lord Mandelson “did discuss European Union trade policy with the Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska” during his time as EU Trade Commissioner. EU Commission spokesman Peter Power confirmed that “the subject of timber duties came up in conversation” and that Mandelson’s claims that he never discussed EU policy with the Russian businessman referred only to their meeting in
Although there is still no evidence that aluminum tariffs were discussed, Deripaska does own a wood processing and lumber company, so Mandelson is still open to accusations that a conflict of interest arose as a result of their relationship.
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Czech ratification of
Czech news agency CTK notes that the Mayor of Prague Pavel Bem, who is also the first deputy chairman of the ruling Civic Democrats (ODS) and a contender for the party’s chairmanship, has said that he is against his country ratifying the Lisbon Treaty. Although “pro-European”, Bem said that "this does not mean that I will be pushing through at any cost a contractual document that no one has even properly read”.
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European Commission compromises over EU-wide telecommunications regulator
The WSJ reports that the European Commission has agreed to curtail its plans to create a pan-European telecommunications regulator. The paper notes that resistance from the European Parliament and the European Telecommunications Council has led to a revised plan from the Commission. The body will only have competence over telecom regulation, with no oversight of spectrum or network security as previously proposed.
Irish government to resist reform of the CAP
The Irish Times reports that the Irish government has told the EU that a radical change to the common agricultural policy (CAP) would risk undermining
A leader in the FT argues that intervention from the EU could save the UN’s failing mission in