The accusation of fraud in EU accounts is perhaps the most difficult aspect of the Union to counter.  It is highly embarrassing for supporters.  Year after year the Commission does not get a clean bill of health and the eurosceptic press goes to town.   Almost 1 billion euros - £650 million - of EU funds is reckoned to be lost each year through fraud.  This year (2007-8), the European Court of Auditors gives the Commission a lot more praise than usual, but there are still problems.

Of course all this brings out the superiority complex of so many UK eurosceptics. The assumption is that all those foreigners are corrupt while the British are whiter than white.  Of course this is not so. Fraud in the UK is alive and well. The accountants KPMG make an annual survey of fraud crimes of over £100,000 which get to court. They reckon the value of fraud here is £330 m. But not everything gets to court. The accountants BDO Stoy Hayward estimates reported fraud comes to £643m. The Home Office estimates the impact of fraud on the economy is£40bn.

Even if there is a lot of fraud in the UK, no  is trying to condone it in the EU. It is good that more and more resources have been applied by the EU to combating it in their bailiwick. The major problem of course is that the EU is not in direct charge of   accounting for expenditure.  EU funds are administered by the individual states. As the Commission spokesman said “Every year the Commission takes the rap for cock-ups by member states.  This is a bit like a referee in a football match getting the blame for fouls committed by the players.”

The UK has been in the vanguard of countries rejecting any sort of EU watchdog. So the perception of fraud is going to continue. Talking to a UK Customs and Excise officer he admitted that, with scarce resources, following up fraud on EU money takes a low priority.

The fight against fraud in Europe is spearheaded by OLAF -http://europa.eu.int/comm/anti-fraud. I like to believe they are doing as good a job as anyone could, given the restrictions on access for their people. A dilemma for the system is that the more fraud they uncover the perception is given of a growing problem. [It is a similar problem with statistics anywhere: the more people report crime or rape or truancy or whatever, the bigger the problem appears to be.]

Another site worth accessing is the EU Court of Auditors - www.eca.eu.int. They call themselves "the financial conscience of the European Union.”