Court of Auditors 2009 Report

Jacob Rees-Mogg Excerpts

Wednesday 2nd February 2011 Commons Chamber

[Jacob Rees-Mogg (North East Somerset) (Con)]

In the time available, I shall try to speak without hesitation, deviation or repetition. I want to deal with one point, EuropeAid, and draw a conclusion from it.

EuropeAid was found not to be perfect by the European Court of Auditors. The ECA noted a high frequency of non-quantifiable errors due to the lack of formalised and structured demonstration of compliance with payment conditions. It found poorly documented and ineffective checks. EuropeAid was terrified by the mighty power of the Court of Auditors coming down before it, so what did it say it would do? It said that it would have a little more training and disseminate a financial management toolkit.

If I were a fraudster, I would be quaking in my boots at a financial management toolkit. That comes to the nub of the problem. Bodies such as EuropeAid could not give a brass farthing. The European Union is fundamentally corrupt because it is undemocratic. There is no check on it from electors. What can the electors of North East Somerset do? They can send me here to rail against it and try to stir the Minister, but the Minister needs no stirring. She is valiantly defending British interests. The shadow Minister, the hon. Member for Bristol East (Kerry McCarthy), my neighbour, is in agreement.

But what do the Government face with our European partners? When we look across the channel, we see countries that have been corrupt for generations—for decades. With the Roman empire, we can go back to the tax collectors at the time of Christ who were corrupt. There is institutionalised corruption within Europe. It is an empire that has an emperor, and the emperor has no clothes. We know that. We see the corpulent emperor in his fat rotundity gorging on the money of the British people. I urge Her Majesty’s Government to go along with my hon. Friend the Member for Wycombe (Steve Baker) and say enough is enough. They should say as the great lady said—“It’s our money, and you can’t have it unless you can prove that you are spending it honestly.”