Continued fraud at European Parliament

[I, Brian]

On the issue of Britain joining the European Union, I try to remain on the fence.

I'm not put off by concerns over MEPs taking 8 years to agree what does and constitute "honey" for labeling purposes - but the fact that extensive fraud can not simply exist, but continue to exist, at the main offices is one of the most disurbing issues.

We're not talking about thousands or hundreds of thousands of pounds/dollars going missing - not even millions - but billions in missing cash.

Amazing, disgusting, and disturbing.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3279675.stm

excerpt:

The European Union's court of auditors has failed to give EU accounts a clean bill of health for the ninth year.


The court has criticised the system of accounting used by the European Commission and the way in which much of the 100bn euro annual budget is spent.

The auditors can give assurance to less than 10% of the European Union's annual budget for 2002, they say. The news came as European Commission President Romano Prodi faced a grilling over a multi-million dollar EU fraud.