An exchange of letters in the Times brought up the old myth that the EU accounts had not been signed off by the auditors. I wrote the following reply, which was not printed.
Sir,
When it comes to the EU accounts, Alan Sked (letters, May 25) should go back to primary sources rather than trusting persistent misreporting in the UK media.
In the auditors’ own words: “The EU accounts for 2014 were correctly prepared in accordance with international public sector accounting standards, and present a true and fair view of the EU’s financial results for the year and its assets and liabilities at the end of the year. We were therefore able to give a clean opinion on the reliability of the accounts (‘signed off’), as we have done since 2007”.
Sadly, while the auditors gave the EU itself a clean bill of health, they were reported rather less confidence in spending by national governments — though even here, the fraud level was less than 0.2%.
The full audit reports are published online for anyone who is interested in the truth behind the headlines.
Richard Corbett MEP
