Taken from the Sofia Echo

A new European Commission report has revealed that the amount of EU funding lost in fraud and "
irregular payments"
in 2009 almost doubled to reach EUR 1.3 B.

Data from the report was published on the online news site theparliament.com.

An estimated one EUR in every five handed out in aid was said to be "
siphoned off by corrupt officials,"
the report shows while a staggering two-thirds of alleged EU fraud concerns just six countries: Bulgaria, Romania, Greece, Italy, Poland and Spain.

The revelations came after EU leaders agreed to a 2.9% increase in the EU budget for 2011 and as Member States introduce tough austerity measures.

Some examples of EU funds fraud, listed in the report include claims for a lemon and orange grove orchard that did not actually exist on the Italian island of Sicily or payment of thousands of EUR to livestock owners in Slovenia for "
non-existent"
cattle.

According to the European commission's "
Fight Against Fraud"
report, irregularities in the common agricultural policy (CAP), which accounts for about half the EU budget, cost EUR 1.2 B, up 23%.

The worst area for fraud in 2009 was the cohesion policy, where funds go to Europe's poorest regions and which takes up more than one third of the whole EU budget. Suspected fraud and irregularities in this area was EUR 1.2 B, up 109%.

The EU needs investigating for paying out without checking or are they in with it all .
The eu well knows what they were dealing with at the outset .Just another example of fat cats creaming off the milk again .
SO WHATS NEW

Well here is something printed today by the EU observer and it puts Greece at the top

Bulgaria is no longer the most corrupt country in Europe, according to Transparency Internationale's 2010 index of public sector corruption.

Greece has now taken over the top EU spot in the list, but Bulgaria's position as the Union's least competitive and most energy-consuming economy is still beyond challenge. Bulgaria's former EU commissioner Meglena Kuneva said the government is unable to set the right priorities for the country (Photo: European Communities, 2008) Bulgaria's labor productivity per hour worked is less than 40 percent of the EU average, according to a European Commission report.
At the same time, the industry of the Black Sea country spends around 800g of oil equivalent per €1 of gross added value, compared to a 250g EU average.
"
Bulgaria's real effective exchange rate depreciated slightly from its 1999 level to 2005 but appreciated strongly from 2005 to 2009, indicating significantly decreased competitiveness,"
the paper said. "
Bulgaria was confronted with one of the biggest drops of manufacturing output in the EU during the crisis. It fell by almost 35 percent, but regained 17 percent in July 2010."
The commission also said that Bulgaria's performance in the field of innovation was below EU average and that the country lagged behind other member states in terms of carbon intensity, waste generation by enterprises and export of environmental goods. The paper urges the authorities in Sofia "
to undertake important structural reforms to improve its competitiveness such as cutting red tape, fostering innovation with a view toward increasing productivity, improving energy efficiency across all sectors of the economy and developing the transport infrastructure."
The government of Prime Minister Boiko Borisov does not, however, seem to be getting the message. It is planning unpopular spending cuts, in common with other European countries, but instead of steering scarce resources primarily to knowledge-based sectors, it has painfully axed budgets for science, research and education, prompting protests by students and academics.The only state institution to be fully spared from any cuts is the 60,000-strong interior ministry where Mr Borisov, a former bodyguard, made most of his career. His first deputy, interior minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov, has described the ministry's tasks of fighting crime and corruption as the government's key anti-crisis measures.

Bulgaria's former EU commissioner said the government was unable to set the right priorities for Bulgaria.
"
The EU can help us do what we obviously can't – to set our priorities,"
she said in a telephone interview. "
It is enough to see what the priorities of the union as a whole are and how they have translated them in countries like Finland, Sweden and Poland to understand what we have to do and how to do it."

"
It is good that the students are insisting on a long-term strategy,"
Ms Kuneva added, referring to recent protests at Sofia University.

Gimp wrote:

"
to undertake important structural reforms to improve its competitiveness such as cutting red tape, fostering innovation with a view toward increasing productivity, improving energy efficiency across all sectors of the economy and developing the transport infrastructure."

Cutting red tape would reduce inherent problems by about 50% right away

If they can measure who is best or worst they must have facts and figures from some source or other so why can they not use this info to stop it all going on.Afterall were not talking 50 bob here are we ????????????//

Thats a simple question to answer "
Bureaucracy"

Gimp wrote:

Thats a simple question to answer "
Bureaucracy"

Never known a Country like this one that uses 10 people to process a piece of paper when it could be done by one Of course the more people involved the more chance of a fiddle

Gimp wrote:

Thats a simple question to answer "
Bureaucracy"

Yes, but it's not simply bureaucracy. It is "
Eastern European bureaucracy"
. The difference between that and "
Western European bureaucracy"
is that in the West, it is a jobsworth thing, but here IT IS TO MAKE THINGS DIFFICULT FOR EVERYONE YOU CAN BECAUSE EVERYONE ELSE MAKES THINGS DIFFICULT FOR YOU. It will take at least a generation to erase that.

coriolanus wrote:

IT IS TO MAKE THINGS DIFFICULT FOR EVERYONE YOU CAN BECAUSE EVERYONE ELSE MAKES THINGS DIFFICULT FOR YOU.

Sounds like someone else has had the Bulgarian experience.

Oh, yes, Tony, plenty, but I am making a very serious point here. If that is the mentality, then how much can anyone expect to enjoy life here?

George I agree with your point.

coriolanus wrote:

It will take at least a generation to erase that.

That's being optimistic George

davshaz wrote:

y davshaz » 03 Nov 2010 22:02

coriolanus wrote: It will take at least a generation to erase that.



That's being optimistic George

I was hoping people wouldn't notice how optimistic I was being, davshaz, but you have seen right through me

Nothing new in the EC report, just a cold hearted confirmation that nothing has been done in Bulgaria and fraud is on increase.