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Euronews: EU-Court of Auditors critizises the way of spending money within the EU
 'Too many errors with a financial impact,' is how the president of the EU Court of Auditors summed it up. This was after the European Union's financial watchdog had withheld approval of the European Commission's roughly 100 billion euro budget for the twelfth year in a row.
Siim Kallas, the Commissioner in charge of administration, rankled at the criticism. He said: "Machinery is huge and you cannot expect that to spend over 100 billion euros is an easy exercise." The court said farmers, local authorities and other beneficiaries of EU funds were too often claiming more than allowed. The reasons ranged: From attempted fraud to plain misunderstanding of the bloc's complex budgetary system. Hans-Peter Martin, in the European Parliament's Budgetary Control Committee, pinpoints what is most pertinent in the matter: "This report is a very harsh criticism of the way money is used in the EU. This time it clearly focuses on the Commission and internal political sectors. It really must be taken seriously. Wherever the Commission can reform itself it should. Otherwise, Europe will be accepted by the citizens less and less." The court cannot block any EU spending. But its report is studied by the Parliament, which has in the past delayed some budget allocations because of discovered irregularities. The Commission faulted the court's method of finding errors in small sample transactions, then extrapolating.
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Published on Euronews-Online on October 24th 2006
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