OLAF investigating £675m of fraud in last year's EU budget

The EU's anti-fraud department, OLAF, is investigating 1,400 cases of fraud in the EU budget totalling £675m from 2015 alone.

One of the cases being investigated involves the owner of a factory being given £1m to buy vegetable chilling machinery from himself at an inflated price. Another involves evasion of the EU's 54.3% protectionist tariffs on Chinese solar panels by falsifying documents relating to their origin.

The EU is keen to point out that the fraud amounts to only 0.6% of the EU's budget but that's enough to build a new hospital or nearly 6 years of the British government's homelessness budget.

A large proportion of the fraud investigations are for eastern European countries.

The EU is holding back legislation until after the referendum

The EU are deliberately holding back on new legislation until after the EU referendum to avoid giving ammunition to the leave campaign.

Included in the queued up legislation is a proposal to increase the EU budget by €20bn, new guidelines increasing the freedom of movement rights and EU accession to the European Convention on Human Rights which will override domestic human rights legislation in all EU countries.

If the referendum goes the wrong way there is a lot of pain waiting for us as soon as it's over.

Almost €1bn of EU budget lost to fraud and bad accounting last year

The EU lost almost €1bn to fraud and bad accounting in 2014 according to its internal anti-fraud office, OLAF.

The losses represent around 0.7% of the total budget of €142.7 for 2014.

The EU's own internal auditors have refused to sign the EU's accounts off for 19 years and if they've managed to lose this much money to fraud and bad accounting, it looks like it's shortly going to be 20 years.

EU demands £680m to cover overspend

The EU is demanding another £680m from the UK taxpayer to cover £5.4bn of spending that they don't have the money for.

It's only been a couple of weeks since they landed a £1.7bn bill on George Osborne's desk and now they want more. At least they had a flimsy pretext for demanding the £1.7bn, they didn't just say "we've spent too much money, give us some more".

Cameron fails to stop £6.2bn EU budget increase

Someone's been practising their angry face

David Cameron's Cast Iron Guarantee™ to cut the EU budget was shown to be as worthless as his Cast Iron Guarantee™ to hold an EU referendum after almost every EU finance minister voted for a £6.2bn increase in the EU budget.

Thanks to Cameron agreeing to increase the percentage of the EU budget we pay to cover the cost of bringing in destitute eastern European we've got to pay a massive £14.7bn into the EU budget this year - an increase of £770m (nearly 13% of the increase in the budget).

Back in October last year, after Cameron said he would use the veto to oppose any "outrageous" budget demands from the EU we said don't be surprised if the 6.85% increase the EU Commission is demanding is just shy of "outrageous".  With the extra £6.2bn added to this year's budget, it's a 6.8% increase over last year's and is Cameron wielding the veto?  Is he buggery.

Cameron was no more serious about opposing the EU Commission's demands than he is about holding an EU referendum and if he can't even get the Greeks to agree to pay less money into the EU how on earth does he expect to secure the unanimous agreement of every EU member state to sign a new treaty allowing the UK to take powers back off the EU?  How can anyone take this clown seriously?

Roger Helmer MEP on the EU budget

The Tories and Labour are claiming that UKIP MEPs have voted for an increase in the EU budget.  Roger Helmer MEP explains why UKIP voted against the "cut" EU budget ...

EU budget reduction proposal set to be blocked by MEPs

Ministers have agreed a reduced EU budget for the next 7 years from around €992bn to €960bn but it could still fail to pass through the EU Parliament and the EU's off-budget spending is still out of control.

Oi, Cameron ... outside

The Guardian is calling this EU "austerity" but shaving €32bn off a budget of almost a trillion euro to be spent by an organisation that hasn't signed off its own accounts for 17 years because of fraud and waste isn't what most people would call austerity.  The Tory press are calling it a "victory".

As part of this "austerity", the French have secured an extra €1bn for Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) subsidies, making a mockery of numerous promises by Cameron and his cronies to demand CAP reforms.  Off-budget expenditure such as building roads and bridges in poorer countries is protected.

Godfrey Bloom's best mate Martin Schulz MEP is leading the plot to block the reduced budget and has managed to secure a secret ballot on the budget allowing MEPs to vote against it without voters finding out how they voted.

Whilst any reduction in the amount of money the wasteful, corrupt EU gets to spends is a good thing, the UK's payments will actually increase thanks to the new rules agreed by Blair and continued by Cameron that continually reduce the rebate.

Cameron capitulates on EU budget

Oh so predictably, David Cameron has capitulated on the EU budget after holding out for a freeze 2.9% increase for literally days.

Tit

According to the Guardian, Cameron has accepted that the UK's contribution to the EU budget will increase to pay for the destitute eastern and south-eastern European countries desperate to suckle at the EU's teat.  So not only has Cameron already thrown away his ace card by saying that we will never leave the EU while he's in charge no matter what they do to us, he's now said that he expects us to pay more into the EU's wasteful, fraud-ridden budget just two days ahead of the meeting where he's supposed to be demanding a cut in the EU budget.

As my swimming buddy succinctly put it this morning: "what a tit".

EU may agree budget by excluding UK

The EU is apparently considering pressing ahead with a budget agreement that includes every member state apart from the UK.  Quite how this would be legal or how it would work in practical terms is a mystery but anyone expecting Cameron to finally put his foot down and say enough is enough will be bitterly disappointed.  As usual.

Odds of a referendum? This much.

Speaking at the CBI conference in central London, Mr Cameron said he was "a good European" but signalled he was ready to take a tough line in negotiations on the 2014-20 budget.

"I make absolutely no apologies for standing up strongly for Britain in Europe on some of our priorities," Mr Cameron said.

Speaking about the harsh cuts Britain has faced, the Prime Minister said: "It is simply not credible to go to Europe and say we have made all these difficult decisions at home but when it comes to the European budget we are going to see it go up and up and up.

"I think I have got the people of Europe on my side in arguing that we should stop picking their pockets and spending more and more money through the EU budget, particularly when so many parts of the European budget are not well spent," he stated.

So Cameron is "a good European" and he makes "no apologies for standing up strongly for Britain in Europe".  Next thing you know he'll be telling us the Pope is Catholic and that bears carry out their ablutions amongst the trees.  After backtracking on a promised referendum when he came to power and then whipping his MPs to deny us a referendum earlier this year, does anyone seriously doubt that Cast Iron Dave is anything but an EU sockpuppet?  As for "many parts" of the EU budget being "not well spent" - we're talking about 3.9% of  the EU's budget of around £105bn for last year (over £4bn) being lost to fraud and error and the EU's own auditors refusing to sign off their accounts for the 18th year in a row.  This isn't a minor blip involving a few quid, it's a major systemic failure resulting in a sum of money being wasted roughly equivalent to the entire Icelandic government's 2011 budget!

And how have his colleagues responded to this statement of undying love for the EU from their leader?  Ken Clarke says that Cameron's "real terms freeze" (ie. a 2.9% increase) is only a "starting point" and he could accept an increase.  Could usually implies some semblance of doubt of which there is none - Cameron will agree to an outrageous increase in the EU budget.  Boris Johnson drifted off into some private fantasy about Cameron dressing up as Margaret Thatcher and saying no to the EU and David Davies - once one of the Conservative Party's most vocal eurosceptics - said that Cameron should give another Cast Iron Guarantee™ of a referendum after the next election and pass a law to make sure it happens.  There's already a law (the EU Act) that was supposed to give us a referendum when there was a new transfer of sovereignty to the EU but which was usefully worded so that the government of the day decides whether they feel like giving us a referendum and of course they don't so they haven't so another one would be quite pointless.  Aside from Cameron's utter determination not to allow us to vote ourselves out of the EU, should such a law actually make it onto the statute books any incoming LibLabCon government could (and probably would) simply repeal it because no parliament can bind its successors.

Opinion poll after opinion poll shows that most of us want out of the EU, it is morally and democratically indefensible to deny us the referendum the majority of the electorate clearly want.

Cameron defeated over EU budget

David Cameron has suffered an embarrassing defeat on the EU budget after MPs voted in favour of an amendment put forward by Tory rebels to decrease the EU budget.  Cameron was in favour of freezing it at best.

Oxfordshire Tory MP, Tony Baldry, led the charge for the government telling MPs they should get behind the party and not support a cut in the EU budget - "get a grip and start supporting the prime minister".  Another Tory MP, Bernard Jenkin, said "the last thing we want is to wreck the EU".

The vote is non-binding so Cameron will support an increased EU budget anyway but at least he's had a bloody nose.

Cameron makes more promises

David Cameron has made yet another promise of an EU referendum at the Tory Party conference and like his infamous Cast Iron Guarantee™ he's promising it after the next election.  Oh, and it won't be an in/out referendum, it'll be a status quo or the mythical repatriation of powers that he keeps promising but won't ever tell us how and when it might ever happen when there is no legal basis for it in the Lisbon Treaty.

Cameron is particularly vague and contradictory about this referendum, suggesting it would be held some time after a new, trade-only relationship has already been negotiated and then says that a referendum would be needed as a mandate to negotiate a trade-only relationship.  A self-imposed chicken and egg situation from Cast Iron Dave offering a perpetual get-out clause.

The EU Commission is demanding a big increase of 6.85% (€137.9bn) in its budget and the EU Parliament have agreed to it.  While the French and Germans called for a cut in the EU budget, the Tories and Lib Dems voted for a budget freeze and Labour voted for the increase.  Cameron says that he'll consider using a veto to stop any "outrageous" budget increase but of course he doesn't say what "outrageous" means so don't be surprised if, by a happy co-incidence, 6.85% is just shy of "outrageous".

Boris Johnson has scored a massive own goal by backing Cameron's vague and impossible repatriation of powers guff and saying he sees no reason for having an in/out referendum on the EU now.  Many in the City will be astounded that Mayor Boris doesn't consider the sustained assault by the EU on London's financial sector - an attack that is still ongoing - as a good enough reason to leave the EU.

Cameron has also claimed that he will impose visa controls on some EU immigrants.  This is completely illegal under EU rules and the EU have already stomped on the last promise to try and limit immigration and that was only for non-EU immigration!  Membership of the EU removes your right to control your own borders.

The Tories simply can't be trusted.  We've had a string of broken promises by Cameron and Tory MPs have rallied round him, making excuses and calling for the Tory faithful to keep the faith.  Anyone who votes for a Tory with their record is a damn fool.

EU Commission wants 6.8% budget increase

The EU Commission wants another 6.8% increase in its budget this year - an increase of £1bn for the UK alone.

The EC says it needs the money to meet spending commitments which is interesting because that would suggest they have a 6.8% public spending deficit which is 2.8% over the arbitrary one-size-fits-all target of 3% that they are enforcing for all member states.  The Dutch government has just collapsed because they couldn't get through the necessary spending cuts to get their deficit (which is not far off the EU Commission's deficit) down to the EU's limit of 3%, shouldn't Emperor Barroso fall on his sword as well?  We can but hope.

Luckily, Cameron says that it's an unacceptable increase and so does the rabid europhile leader of the Tory MEPs, Richard Ashworth, so their plans are thwarted.  That's a Cast Iron Guarantee™.

UKIP MEP, Marta Andreasen, said:

[It's] selfish, unrealistic and insulting to taxpayers already under the cosh. This demand is cloud-cuckoo land stuff. Have the European Commission finally completely lost their grip on reality?

I think the answer is, they lost their grip on reality some time in the 60s.

Cameron caves in to EU shocker

Well who'd have thought it?  Camoron has caved in to the European Empire and broken his cast iron guarantee to hold a referendum on the EU constitution/Lisbon Treaty again.

He set a new personal record for caving in to the European Empire by conceding defeat a day before he even started negotiations.  Well done Dave, quite the statesman aren't we?

Cast Iron Dave said he was going to Brussels to put a stop to the unacceptable 6% budget increase his bosses on the continent are demanding.  Instead he agreed to a £435m (2.91%) increase in the EU budget before he even left the country.

According to the President of the EU Parliament, Jerzy Buzek, only 10 of the 27 EU regional administrators (formerly known as Prime Ministers and Presidents) are siding with Camoron - far below the majority needed to make a futile show of opposing the europhile EU Parliament which came up with the 6% in the first place.

Lord Tebbit has upset some eurofederalists by bringing up the 2nd world war European civil war by warning Camoron not "to surrender in Vichy-style arrangement, pretending to hold on to sovereignty by agreeing to what Europe demands".  He's already surrendered Lord T, stop wasting your time with the Conservative & (European) Unionist Party and put your efforts into a proper eurosceptic party.

France and Germany have both agreed on the need for a new version of the EU constitution/Lisbon Treaty to give the European Empire more power over national budgets.  This should trigger a referendum under Camoron's own rules but he said that as we're not in the euro we don't need a referendum.

As well as agreeing to give another £435m per year to the EU - about £435m more than we can afford - Camoron has formally agreed to present the UK national budget to the EU before it's presented to the UK Parliament and to be fined if the EU decides we've borrowed too much money.

Camoron has caved in yet again, putting EU ambition ahead of national interest.  He's broken another referendum promise, handed over more of our sovereignty to the EU and agreed to give them close to half a billion pounds per year more for their slush fund at a time when the British government is slashing public spending and raising taxes at home because we're bankrupt.

It's no wonder even died in the wool Tories can't find a good thing to say about Camoron when it comes to the EU.

David Cameron: Compulsive Liar & Traitorous Europhile

David Camoron is going to the European Empire today to fight for a limit on the increase in the EU budget.  A few days ago he wanted a freeze in the budget and a few days before that he wanted a reduction in the budget.  By the end of the day he'll have increased our contribution and agreed to abolish the rebate.

It is impossible for the UK government to reduce the EU budget.  Even if Camoron somehow managed to get a majority of the heads of member states to agree to limit the obscene 6.2% increase in the EU budget, the EU Parliament can overrule them and as we all know, 90% of the EU Parliament is made up of europhile traitors whose only objective in life is lining their own pockets and creating a European Empire.

Cast Iron Dave gave a cast iron promise that we would have a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty/EU constitution.  He lied.

He said his government wouldn't transfer any more powers to the EU and then transferred more criminal justice powers to the EU, agreed to illegal EU scrutiny of the UK budget before it goes to Parliament and agreed to the creation of an EU financial services regulator.  He lied.

He said he would fight for a reduction in the EU budget.  He lied.

He said he would fight for a freeze in the EU budget.  He lied.

He says he's going to fight for a limit on the EU budget increase.  He's lying!

France and Germany want to change the Lisbon Treaty/EU constitution to give the EU more control over eurozone economies.  Camoron said any new treaty or treaty change would be subject to a referendum.  Now he says we don't need a referendum on this change to the Lisbon Treaty because we're not in the euro.  Another lie.


David Camoron is a compulsive liar and a treasonous europhile.  He has surrounded himself with europhile Tories and Lib Dems in his ConDem coalition cabinet.  During the election campaign we said "Vote Conservative, get Brussels".  The electorate voted Conservative and they're getting Brussels.

EU contributions to rise by 60%

The net contribution paid by the UK to the European Empire is rising by 60% in April to £6.4bn.

This figure isn't the actual cost of EU membership, it's merely the amount on the books with "EU contribution" next to it. The true cost, with the 60% increase in direct contributions, is closer to £900 per person, per year.

The Treasury said it is right that we "share the burden of membership with new accession countries" even though we weren't asked if we wanted them, weren't asked if we wanted to pay for them and certainly can't afford to pay for them.

The Treasury also said:

The prime minister has made clear our belief is that it is right for us to share the burden of membership of the European Union with the new accession countries so that every part of the European Union can look forward to prosperity in the future.

If only that were the case but of course it's not. This is soviet-style socialism we're talking about here, the objective is to bring everyone down to the same level of deprivation and misery. The European Empire is making prosperous countries poorer and destitute countries richer with the aim of getting to whole continent just above the poverty line, too poor to trade with countries outside of the EU and most citizens dependent on the state to feed and clothe them.

The hypocritical Tories have criticised the increased bill, saying that it's not a particularly good idea to be handing over more cash to the EU in the middle of a recession. But the Tories have no solution - they support continued membership of the European Empire and all the costs and harmful directives that are associated with it. David Camoron is committed to keeping the UK as a member of the European Empire in defiance of logic and public opinion.

UKIP MEP calls EU 'enemy of democracy and freedom of thought'

In a speech to the European Parliament in Strasbourg today (17.12.08), Jeffrey Titford, UKIP MEP questioned the democratic legitimacy of the European Union's proposed budget for 2009. He attacked the EU's 'arrogance' in assuming that it should be 'a global player' and demanded to know who had ever wanted it to play such a role. "I put it to you all that the EU has no democratic mandate whatsoever for the empire building outlined in this budget", he said. Mr Titford also attacked plans included in the budget for an EU trademark and an information campaign which he dismissed as 'brainwashing' because the EU would: "sell itself as the greatest benefit to humanity since penicillin rather than the grotesque enemy of democracy and freedom of thought that it really represents." The full text of Mr Titford's speech is as follows: Draft General Budget of the European Union 2009 – Strasbourg 17.12.08

Mr President

Arrogance is the word which keeps springing to mind when reading this lengthy report, because the text is redolent with it. For instance, clause 25 laments the fact that the funds available quote: ‘do not allow the Union to assume its role as a global player’ unquote. The same clause refers to the EU having the capacity to assume its role as a global partner’.

Who ever wanted the EU to have such a role? Why does it have such an inflated sense of its own importance? Certainly, no one in my country has been given a vote on the development of the EU as a global player. We were told it was a common market and would provide cheap wine and nice holidays.

I also note that the global player wants its own trademark for use in all communications with the masses and wants a major information campaign for the 2009 European election campaign. For ‘information’ read ‘brainwashing’ because the EU will no doubt sell itself as the greatest benefit to humanity since penicillin rather than the grotesque enemy of democracy and freedom of thought that it really represents.

The aforementioned arrogance spills over into everything it touches. There is no better example than the disgraceful and disrespectful treatment of President Klaus, a head of state, at a meeting in Prague recently by members here.

I put it to you all that the EU has no democratic mandate whatsoever for the empire building outlined in this budget.