Lax controls to blame for EU budget errors

The National Audit office today blamed the European Commission and the UK government for lax controls on EU spending after Europe’s financial watchdog refused to clear the accounts for the 13th year running.

The European Court of Auditors said last November that levels of mismanagement and fraud were still too high to justify signing off the £75bn (€94bn) EU budget for 2006 with a “Positive Statement of Assurance”.