The EU's budget has failed to win approval from its financial watchdog agency for the eleventh year in a row! The words of the auditors and the scale of the program bring to mind nothing less than the scandalous United Nations Oil—for—Food program:

The European Court of Auditors refused to give a statement of assurance on the EU's 100 billion euro budget for 2004.

"The vast majority of the payment budget was again materially affected by errors of legality and regularity," it said.

The audit found major shortcomings in the EU's two biggest areas of spending — farm subsidies and regional development.

Buck—passing is naturally the order of the day, when it comes to assigning responsibility for the billions of euros which may be wasted or stolen. The EU blames national governments for not supervising expensidtures within their jurisdictions, while the national gavernments blame the Commission for poor financial controls.

How many more years — or decades — will elapse before the entire project of a European government either is able to pass an audit, or collapses under the accumulated weight of corruption, deficits, and poor economic growth due to excessive taxation and over—regulation?

Hat tip: Lucianne.com

Thomas Lifson  11 16 05