BBC News, 6
November 2012
Related
Stories
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| Agricultural subsidies make up a large part of EU spending
EU draft budget for 2013
- Total - 137.9bn euros
- Cohesion (spending on Europe's
poorer regions) - 49bn
- Agricultural support - 44.1bn
- Administration - 8.5bn
|
Auditors
have said the European Union has failed to keep tight enough control over its
own spending.
The
European Court of Auditors said there were errors in allocating about 5bn euros
(£4bn) from the 2011 budget.
Critics
said it showed the EU's wastefulness, at a time when it was arguing for a
budget increase.
Court
President Vitor Caldeira said: "With Europe's public finances under severe
pressure, there remains scope to spend EU money more efficiently."
He added:
"Member states must agree on better rules for how EU money is spent, and
member states and the commission must enforce them properly."
The court's
report said most errors arose from "misapplication or
misunderstanding" of the EU's complex rules, though there were some
suspected cases of fraud.
It also
said the failures were often down to the national and local governments
responsible for overseeing the distribution of funds, rather than just the
European Commission.
"A
little more effort by member states to control projects properly and retrieve
misused funds could go a long way, particularly in this time of economic
difficulty," said the EU's Audit Commissioner Algirdas Semeta.
Taxpayers'
money
However,
critics said the commission itself must also accept some of the blame.
"The
European Commission is ultimately responsible for all EU monies spent and it
falls to them to take responsibility for this report," said Martin
Callanan MEP, of Britain's Conservative Party.
"It is
risible that the commission wants a 5% increase in the EU budget, yet nearly 4%
of spending is affected by error. Before asking for more taxpayers' money,
perhaps the commission should prioritise better spending of the money it
already has."
National
leaders will meet for a summit in two weeks' time to try to hammer out the next
seven-year budget.
Britain has
been leading demands for a freeze, saying proposals for an increase are
incompatible with a time of austerity.
A number of
countries which are net contributors to the budget are also arguing for
restraint.
But
net-recipient countries argue that the EU's spending on agriculture and
regional development are valuable ways of stimulating the economy.
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