eurocash...it's our money
WORKERS, MAY 2005 ISSUE
Awash with cash
The European Union is funded with cash from member states, taking a cut from VAT and a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP). The European Commission works out how to spend what comes in, but there is no way to stop the flow. Yet the EU still wants more: its annual budget is forecast to rise by 31%.UK contribution
In 2003 the EU annual budget was 98.3 billion euros; Britain's gross contribution was 15.2 billion euros. Since 1973 Britain's net contribution to the EU has been £75 billion (about 110 billion euros). The House of Commons Public Accounts Committee suggested that "the scale of [the Court of Auditors'] work is totally inadequate given the importance of ensuring the effective use of Community funds".
It's all in the books—maybe
Member states reported "irregularities" of 922 million euros for 2003 to the EU sleaze watchdog. But the Public Accounts Committe says that the fraud and corruption in the EU budget cannot be measured accurately. The figure may be much higher: EU accounts are too complex, and member states do not report consistently, or differentiate between fraud and other irregularities.
No accounting for EU funds
The European Union introduced a new accounting system last January, supposedly to prevent fraud. The new system will be little better than the old one. Opening balances have not been reconciled with closing balances on the old system. This greatly reduces the chance of ever finding out what happened in the past.
But who cares?
The Public Accounts Committee report concluded that "accountability and audit arrangements of the EU have been characterised by inertia among the institutions. The high levels of fraud and irregularity generally thought to exist in EU operations have seriously damaged the Community's reputation.
"The fact that the European Court of Auditors has qualified the Union's accounts for ten successive years gives credence to this view."