Stop the Cheques - Democracy Movement campaign



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£115 million to the EU every week. It's time to... Stop the Cheques INTRODUCTION In December 2005, Tony Blair went to a European Union summit in Brussels and agreed to a big increase in Britain's net payments to the EU budget - from the current level of Ł3.5 billion a year, to over Ł6 billion a year. This is an astonishing Ł115 million every week, even taking into account the money we receive back from the EU in grants and subsidies. Blair agreed to this increase despite regular reports of EU fraud, despite failing to reform the EU's wasteful Common Agricultural Policy and despite the inability of auditors to approve the EU's accounts for 12 years running. Marta Andreasen, the EU's former chief accountant, was sacked by then EU Commissioner Neil Kinnock for revealing that: "Opportunities for fraud are open and they are taken advantage of. The most elementary precautions are neither taken nor even contemplated" (The Times, 6 December 2004) Imagine what could be achieved for schools & hospitals, against crime, towards alleviating poverty or many other vital worthy purposes with Ł115 million extra to spend every week. So the Democracy Movement has launched a new campaign against this shocking waste of so much money. Stop the Cheques will put pressure on MPs to explain why they find it acceptable to hand astonishing amounts of public money to an organisation beset by fraud and whose accounts have not been approved for 12 years running. Or alternatively, to explain what urgent action they are taking to stop payments to the EU, at least until we can be sure that public money is protected from fraud. CAMPAIGN NEWS: Lobby postcard contrasts spending on hospitals and EU 10th April 2007 To keep pressure on MPs over plans to hand an extra £2.5bn a year to the EU - particularly in relation to cuts to health services being caused by £1.3bn of NHS debts - the DM has published a new lobbying postcard (pictured). With the 2007-13 EU budget deal due to be signed off by the EU Council of Ministers on 23rd April, MPs will shortly afterwards get an opportunity to decide whether to approve Tony Blair's pledge to increase Britain's contributions to the EU budget by a massive 60% - despite the EU's on-going problems with fraud and audit failures. Yet dozens of MPs of all parties - many in marginal seats - are facing local NHS cuts and other shortages of funds for essential services. Come the next election, if they vote to approve the EU budget deal, how will they justify having awarded an audit-failing EU even more billions while local services face cuts? The card asks MPs "are you going to stand up for public services and against EU waste by voting against the EU budget deal? If not, please tell me where you suggest the £1.3 billion that hospitals need is going to come from." An initial salvo of cards has been distributed with the DM's latest campaign mailing and supplies are also being despatched to branches for local distribution. Send one to your MP today! *DM letter in the Sunday Telegraph* criticises EU chief accountant** 11th February 2007 The DM has a letter in the Sunday Telegraph today criticising the comments of EU chief accountant Brian Gray in a letter the previous week. It reads: Dear Sir, Brian Gray, the EU chief accountant, must have neglected to read the European Court of Auditors report on the 2005 accounts to have come to such a perversely positive conclusion about the accuracy of EU spending (Letters, February 4). It very clearly highlights "weak internal controls for the majority of EU expenditure, both within the Member States and at the Commission" and goes on to report a "high incidence of errors in the underlying transactions" and that "overdeclarations and ineligible expenditure continue to go undetected within the majority of EU expenditure areas". In attempting to turn two mentions of serious problems in the majority of EU expenditure into "minor reservations", and a "high incidence" of errors into the accounts being reliable, Mr Gray is surely indulging in political spin of epic proportions. Stuart Coster Hounslow, Middlesex Strangely, however, the letter was not attributed to the Democracy Movement in the newspaper - it was attributed as shown above, using our address but not name - despite no space constraints. And the letter also does not appear on the Sunday Telegraph website along with the others that were printed. READ MORE: Pre-budget report in context of the EU's costs *more >>* EU fails audit for 12th year running more >> New campaign postcard to Gordon Brown more >> MPs' EU budget myths exposed *more >>* Marta Andreasen's full speech to DM rally *more >>* Brown's budget: what if we Stop the Cheques? *more >>* EU waste revealed by the Taxpayers' Alliance *more >>* EU budget briefing by Open Europe *more >>* Blair's EU budget myths exposed more >> Tony Blair's full statement to Parliament more >> The official EU budget agreement more >> DM's *Vision Europe* campaign mini-site more >>

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