Motocross Track Gets Farm Subsidy: What We Learned From the EU's Auditors.
From claiming agricultural subsidies for a motocross track as 'arable
land' to the curious case of the non-functioning sewerage system in Greece, this
year's Court of Auditors' report shows that the European Union remains rotten to
the core.
It's a big blow for those who have spent year after year championing
elusive 'EU reform'. After 42 years of the United Kingdom trying to reform the
European Union, the report shows that the system remains as bad as ever. The
Conservatives failed to reform the EU, then Labour did, then the Conservatives
did. Then Labour failed again, then the Coalition failed, and now the
Conservatives claim they're going to manage it. Of course, they're not asking
for any meaningful reform so they'll spin almost anything as successful
renegotiation.
Forget the headlines about whether or not the accounts have been signed
off. Read one newspaper, and they'll say the accounts were signed off. Read
another, and they'll tell you they weren't. They'll say it's now two decades and
counting. So what's the truth? Well, the accepted 'error rate' is 2% - if
there's less than 2% of the EU's budget mis-spent, then it's considered
acceptable and the accounts are approved. That's never happened. This year the
figure is 4.4% - and that's after some of the calculations have been relaxed to
make the target easier to hit.
Fed up with eurosceptics pointing out the obvious, the pro-EU lobby
leaned on the European Union. They don't want the anti-EU cause to be able to
say that the accounts haven't been signed off for 20 years in a row. So the
auditors continue to express an 'adverse opinion' on the accounts, and say that
they've been 'materially affected by error'. On that basis, eurosceptics point
out that another year goes by without the accounts being properly signed off.
But the Court of Auditors now 'signs' the accounts despite expressing an adverse
opinion on them. This way, the pro-EU side can - sometimes even with a straight
face - claim that the accounts are indeed 'signed off'.
The sewerage system in Greece is a classic example of a total failure of
joined-up thinking. Back in 2006, an application was made for EU funding to
build a sewerage plant and networks. Seven years later, the project was
completed in 2013. But no-one thought to connect the sewerage network to private
households, making the whole project completely irrelevant and pointless. It's
rumoured that now there are some plans afoot for the system to be connected.
Maybe.
In Castilla La Mancha (Spain), there is a piece of land set aside as
arable land. At least, that's what they claimed EU funding for. But upon closer
examination it turns out to actually be a motocross track.
Naturally.
In Romania, staff were paid three times the going rate for working on an
EU-funded project. Elsewhere, a truck was purchased for a 'small business' which
turned out to actually be a large company. In Italy, a high-speed rail project
claimed for what appears to have been an out-of-court legal settlement with a
subcontractor.
From part-time employees being paid as full-time, to elaborate schemes
with businesses setting up subsidiary micro-enterprises to qualify for small
business grants, it's clear that there's something deeply wrong with the
system.
Every year, the discussion out here in Brussels is a carbon copy of the
previous year's. They may as well simply play a recording of last year's and
save the trouble of debating it again. Every year we are told why next year will
be better; it never is.
The problem is actually quite fundamental. We hand over £55 million a day
to the European Union, and we're given about £22 million of it back to spend on
EU projects. However, the EU has a string of complex rules for those projects.
Applications for funding are complex and bureaucratic. So even if there is no
actual fraud (and in many cases there is), the level of difficulty involved when
dealing with Brussels and national governments leads to the system being riddled
with errors.
Outside the European Union, how simple life would be! Instead of handing
them £55 million and getting £22 million back, we could give the £22 million to
worthy causes ourselves - and much more efficiently, leaving them to get on with
the jobs that they do best. Then we could keep the other £33 million a day for
ourselves, either to cut the deficit hugely or to employ an army of doctors,
teachers, police officers and nurses. Or, come to think of it, we could actually
do something about the actual army.
Yet the EU will continue to take credit for all that 'EU funding' that
they give us, warts and all. They shouldn't be given credit for giving us some
of our own money back. I can't be grateful for that; will this confidence trick
really con the British public into voting to remain in the European Union? Jonathan Arnott MEP, UKIP - Huff
Post.
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