EU: Financial Management and Fraud (EUC Report)

My Lords, had I wanted to use any whitewash to clean the stables on my farm, I would have found it difficult, because I fear that most of the national stock has been used up by this report. Its principal aim seemed to be to show that if the Commission's accounts have been qualified for the past 12 years, it is not because of any failing in the accounts or in the Commission's procedures, but rather the remit of the Court of Auditors. So the message is, if not shoot the messenger, at least change the message to avoid unpleasant questions about the Commission’s financial competence—what the report is pleased to label, "““the sporadic and sometimes capricious way … this issue is debated … and discussed in the press””." I know that it is considered bad taste in this House to be rude about the EU, but I wonder why it is capricious to ask whether it makes sense to give£14 billion a year every year to an organisation that has failed its audit test 12 years in succession. I was struck by the words ““sporadic”” and ““capricious”” because the report itself could have that accusation levelled at it. At the very least, it has been selective in ignoring evidence that does not fit with its apparent desire to pour oil, in this case, rather than whitewash on the troubled waters of the EU accounts. I begin with an example that my noble friend Lord Inglewood and the noble Lord, Lord Williamson, touched on. In its summary of conclusions at paragraph 160, the report concludes that no, "““evidence supports the allegation that there is a significant element of corruption within the Commission””." I think that that refers to the evidence given by Ashley Mote MEP. Mr Mote actually said that there was a significant element of corruption, not within the Commission itself, but within its administration. He went on to give detailed factual evidence about the fraud at the heart of the Eurostat scam—the 2003 Eurostat scandal, the subject of internal investigation by OLAF, which has yet to result in a single prosecution.