EU Financial Management

I am not sure that there would be universal acclaim for the idea that accountants are the most perfect human beings in the world; indeed, I can hear hissing and booing from the Benches behind me. However, as Economic Secretary to the Treasury, I have to acknowledge—urgently, before I get into serious trouble—that our accountancy standards are very high by any international standards. The EU is sometimes presented as ““Brussels””—an homogenous institution that spends and accounts for all this money as one entity. That is not true. Much of the expenditure is ultimately filtered through nation states, and much of the difficulty as regards the ongoing qualification of accounts is connected to their inability always to account properly and appropriately for the way in which the money is spent. Frankly, it suits some Conservative Members, and perhaps one or two of my hon. Friends, constantly to use that as a stick with which to beat the concept of the European Union. Many elements of this issue play into that view in the context of the broad debate about the integrity and reputation of the European Union and the fact that a massive gap has opened up between the people of Europe and the EU as an institution.