The EU's accountants – the European Court of Auditors (ECA) – have refused to give the EU’s accounts a clean bill of health for the 15th year in a row, owing to fraud and mismanagement in the budget.

Like last year, the auditors did sign off the Commission’s own accounts, saying that they accurately represented how much money was raised and spent.

However, the most important issue is the fact that the EU budget is hugely wasteful and irrational in terms of what the money is actually spent on, and where the money is spent. To illustrate this, Open Europe has produced a list of 50 new examples of EU waste designed to show the types of peculiar projects on which EU money is being wasted, such as a luxury golf course in the Algarve.

To read the press release, click here

To read Open Europe's 50 new examples of EU waste, click here

SOURCE: openeurope.org.uk