EU Financial Management

My hon. Friend asks me that question from a sedentary position. Perhaps he is getting tired of standing up to make his interventions. The Court of Justice provides an important way of enforcing the measures that are agreed to by the Ministers in Council. Indeed, a previous speaker referred to the importance of the Commission taking note, but, in many cases, it is the Ministers who give the Commission instructions to take note. An example is ECOFIN—of which our Chancellor is a member—which is very much involved in attempting to ensure that there is reform and improvement in the institutions of the European Union. The point that I am making is that those of us who believe that it is in Britain’s national interest to be in the European Union also believe that the European Union should be reformed and that it should make every effort to overcome the inadequacies that exist, most notably in regard to the issue that we are discussing this evening. Of course we must have a sense of context. It has always been said that the number of people employed by the European Union institutions is roughly equivalent to the number employed by the county of Staffordshire. I have long since forgotten how many people are employed by the country of Staffordshire, but we should appreciate that we are talking about a comparatively small number of people. That does not exonerate them from a failure to have their accounts properly audited and approved, but it puts the position in context. Sometimes the House, along with some of the British media, greatly exaggerate the apparent problems in the European Union.