• European Unions secret £400m handouts.
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[QUOTE] [IMG]http://images.dailyexpress.co.uk/img/dynamic/1/285x214/186091_1.jpg[/IMG] [B]EU BUREAUCRATS came under fire last night for secretly spending £400million of taxpayers’ money on '[U]confidential[/U]' projects.[/B] Documents from Brussels revealed that 727 grants have been doled out by the European Commission to undisclosed schemes around the world in the past three years. [B]They included £80 million in aid to South Africa and £66 million for 'neighbourhood policy' in the tiny eastern European republic of Moldova. But no details of the grants were given for security reasons' to show how the money was spent.[/B] The siphoning of public money to mystery projects was revealed by the think-tank [I]Open Europe[/I] yesterday. Its spokesman Stephen Booth said: “[I]It is unacceptable for the European Commission to be throwing £400 million of taxpayers’ money down a black hole marked ‘confidential’. “[/I] To make matters worse, the EU is demanding even more money to spend on ludicrous projects that are a complete waste of money.” Bizarrely the secret spending has now been published on a new EU Commission database called the Financial Transparency System. The database, which anyone can view on the Internet, lists all grants made by the European Commission since 2007. [B] It reveals millions of pounds lavished on questionable 'cultural' projects including a dance troupe which performs 'spectacular belching', a travelling model of a fire-breathing dragon and a set of postcards for Euro MPs costing £47,000.[/B] However the database warns: “In certain cases parts of the information displayed on a particular grant or contract may be masked, eg for security reasons.” [B]Other 'secretive' payments have included £6.5million to an unnamed recipient in Switzerland – which is not in the EU – for “European Neighbourhood and Partnership financial cooperation with Mediterranean countries”.[/B] The handouts were revealed at a time when the EU Commission has proposed a 5.3 per cent rise in the EU’s budget, which is expected to exceed £118billion this year. Critics of the EU were last night outraged over the payments. Tory MP Douglas [I]CarswellCarswell [/I]At a time when our coalition administration is making government more accountable to us, the EU is hiding how it spends millions of pounds of our money. “This shows that David Cameron’s vision for Britain is incompatible with our EU membership. [B]“We can’t be opening up the state in Britain while being governed by a secretive elite in Brussels.”[/B] Mark Wallace, campaign director for the [I]TaxPayerTaxPayersnce[/I], said: “It is unacceptable for the EU to spend so much money in secret. [B]Brussels has a dreadful reputation for incompetent and wasteful spending and they must come clean with where our cash is going[/B]. "People are opposed to the areas of EU spending they already know about, so I shudder to think of what the[I] eurocrateurocratsting[/I] up to with taxpayers’ money in secret.” A European Commission spokeswoman defended the spending yesterday, saying it accounted for a tiny proportion of the EU’s budget. She said: “We are amazingly open about so much of our spending. This is a very small amount of money and I am sure there are reasons why this is confidential.” [/QUOTE] Source: [URL]http://www.dailyexpress.co.uk/posts/view/186091/European-Union-s-secret-400m-handouts/[/URL] Hi my name is the EU union and I am ruled by a bunch of bureaucrats and I use tax money fund pointless and irrelevant things like a group of people who burp in a musical fashion. To think Britain joined this union just for trading rights at one point. Now we're funding stupid shit like this.
I read the title as "secretes" At least in the US, we're open about throwing money around :downs:
[QUOTE=Emperor Scorpious II;23256215]I read the title as "secretes"[/QUOTE] Damn, I wish I lived in a country that secreted £400m handouts.
I wish I was paid to burp.
Oh dear.
Well I did expect more counter argument from pro European Unionists.
AH... we discover that politicians and bureacrats are spending our money pointlessly.... news?
Yet another reason why Norway is awwesome.
This is 0.5% of it's budget. For such a huge economy, it's really not that much lost. Not saying it shouldn't be improved, but it is not as much as it might seem.
[QUOTE=Vasili;23257396]Well I did expect more counter argument from pro European Unionists.[/QUOTE] Not much to argue, this isn't a problem with the EU, it's a problem with the politicians there. I'm pro EU but I still think that most of those there just want to sit there for the benefits and not do shit (the EU would need a bit of a make over).
Thats still £400m, which is being classified in most cases on what it is being spent on. Just because its a huge economy doesn't mean it should just throw £400m around the place.
Though this happens in every country or economic entity, and probably always will. Broken automerge.
The EU is such a stupid idea, I am all for unification of the states, but the way they are doing it just wont work.
Politicians doling out money to hushed programs and organizations that never get heard from again. Pretty normal nowadays.
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