Richard Bacon MP - Member of Parliament for South Norfolk

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MP questions safety of UK cash in EU hands

A new report finds that there were 12,000 reports of financial irregularities in EU budgets in 2005, 5.3 percent more than 2004

South Norfolk MP Richard Bacon has questioned whether UK taxpayers’ money is safe in the European Union’s hands, after a new report finds the EU has failed to get a positive statement on its accounts for the twelfth year running.

Mr Bacon, a member of the Commons public accounts committee, was speaking as the National Audit Office published its report into how the European Union (EU) handles its finances.

The report finds that the EU has failed to get a positive statement of assurance from the European Court of Auditors for the twelfth year in a row.

In January 2005, President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso, made it a strategic objective to get a positive statement on the EU’s finances. However, in the same year, the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) was notified of 12,000 cases of irregularity, including suspected fraud, with a value of some €1 billion (£681.4 million). This represents an increase of 5.3 per cent on 2004.

Mr Bacon said today: “My constituents work extremely hard to earn money to feed their families and pay their bills. They will not be happy to see yet more of their cash slip through the EU’s fingers, whether through fraud or incompetence”.

“A staggering 12,000 cases of irregularity in 2005 begs the question ‘is the UK’s money safe in the EU’s hands?’. After 12 years of failure, the EU still does not have a convincing answer”.

“If the EU cannot safeguard the moneys entrusted to it by the taxpayers of this country, it is questionable whether it should have them at all. It is time that member states put the EU on notice that Europe’s taxpayers will only fund those parts of the Commission that show a clean bill of financial health”.

17 April 2007

See also:

NAO REPORT: Financial Management in the European Union

PARLIAMENT: EU must take better care of our money, says MP

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