Britain to ‘take lead’ on vetting EU accounts

Article reports that Ed Balls, the economic secretary to the Treasury and Gordon Brown's closest political ally, will launch an attack 20 January 2006 on the management of the European Union budget, arguing that repeated qualification of its accounts has turned into "an annual embarrassment" for Europe.

Articles goes on to say that Mr Balls will announce that the UK government will in future provide parliament with an annual statement on all EU spending taking place in the UK. This statement will then be audited by the National Audit Office, Whitehall's accounting watchdog.

Mr Balls argues that, if this vetting procedure were adopted by all member states and its findings sent back to Brussels, the European Commission would gain a clearer picture of the scale of budgetary fraud and mismanagement across the EU.

United Kingdom: House of Lords: European Union Committee: 50th Report (2005-06)HL270: Financial Management and Fraud in the European Union: Perceptions, Facts and Proposals (Vol.1) http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200506/ldselect/ldeucom/270/270i.pdf

United Kingdom: House of Lords: European Union Committee: 50th Report (2005-06)HL270: Financial Management and Fraud in the European Union: Perceptions, Facts and Proposals (Vol.2) http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200506/ldselect/ldeucom/270/270ii.pdf

BBC, 20.11.06: Bid to boost trust in EU spending http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6165816.stm

United Kingdom: HM Treasury: Speech, 20.11.06: Speech by Economic Secretary to the Treasury, Ed Balls, MP, to the Annual Conference of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales, at Chartered Accountants' Hall, London EC 2 http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/newsroom_and_speeches/press/2006/press_93_06.cfm

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