EU: Financial Management and Fraud (EUC Report)

My Lords, I have said what I have to say and I am not getting into a debate with the noble Lord about the detail of that. However, when people like the noble Lords, Lord Willoughby de Broke and Lord Pearson of Rannoch, rant on about ““refusing to sign the accounts”” and ““refusing to give a clean bill of health””, those are not proper and accurate descriptions of the process required by the Maastricht Treaty. The treaty requires two things. First, it clearly requires a statement about the accuracy of the accounts, and the accuracy of the accounts has been attested every single year. Secondly, it requires a statement about the regularity of the underlying transactions. That has not been given, and Sir John Bourn, our own Comptroller and Auditor General, said that he would not be able to give such a statement in relation to the United Kingdom’s accounts were he required to do so on the same basis as that required by the European Court of Auditors.