One good reason to say no to the European Union is the continuous waste of taxpayers' going on in Brussels . The EU's main audit authority, the European Court of Auditors, has in the past criticized the a great number of wasteful EU projects, but to no avail. Yes, the the Brussels bigwigs always promise to take action in order to stop the waste, but in reality almost nothing gets done.
In this year's report the audit authority has found a lot to criticize about in the lavish aid given to Egypt:
Egypt is one of the largest recipients of E.U. aid under a program called the European Neighborhood Policy, which seeks to promote stability and democracy among 16 recipients, including the Palestinian territories and Belarus.
In the case of Egypt, up to €600 million, or $800 million, of direct aid to support sectors like health and education could not be properly traced because of the lack of an adequate audit trail, according to the European Court of Auditors, an E.U. body that reviews major areas of spending by the bloc.
The audit agency’s criticism will sting the E.U. authorities — in particular Catherine Ashton, the bloc’s foreign policy chief, and Stefan Fule, its commissioner for the neighborhood policy — at a time when they and their colleagues are under unprecedented pressure to justify their effectiveness amid rising disenchantment with the European Union.
“The softly-softly approach has not worked, and the time has come for a more focused approach which will produce meaningful results and guarantee better value for the European taxpayers’ money,” Karel Pinxten, a member of the court, told reporters.
The report by the court will also call into question whether the European Union is keeping close enough tabs on spending for Egypt worth about €5 billion that was agreed to in November 2012 during a meeting between Ms. Ashton and the Egyptian president, Mohamed Morsi.
The court, which publishes up to 20 so-called special reports each year focusing on major areas of E.U. expenditure, said its criteria for success were whether aid had been effective in improving management of public finances, reducing corruption and promoting human rights and democracy.
But Ms. Ashton’s and Mr. Fule’s departments had failed to use their leverage to promote those goals, and they failed, even once the lack of progress had become apparent, to take “decisive action to ensure accountability for considerable E.U. funds,” the court said in a statement summarizing its 50-page report.
Ms. Ashton’s department also failed to use its leverage to counteract the “negative attitude of Egyptian authorities” to encourage greater respect for human rights and democracy, the statement said.
The findings, which cover the period from 2007 through September 2012, call into question a European approach to development aid, known as budget support, that relies on transferring large amounts of money directly to recipient governments in countries like Egypt. The bloc was the only major donor giving that kind of direct support to Egypt, the court’s report noted.
Former Irish president Mary Robinson has for a long time been a star performer among the do-gooders who jet around the globe in order to give speeches at various "progressive" gatherings.
Last week Robinson, who is also chairing an organisation, modestly called "The Mary Robinson Foundation - Climate Justice" - was in Washington D.C. "to discuss issues of climate change, population and sustainability at a forum hosted by the Aspen Institute".
This was Mrs. Robinson´s message in D.C.:
I had been working in the small organization 'Realizing Rights' and was traveling to different African countries on issues of public health, women, peace and security. I kept hearing, how [people's] lives are so much worse now because of the change in seasons, the dramatic flooding, the long periods of drought.
It was my realization that this was a human rights issue, because these were communities that were not climate resilient. They didn't have insurance and they were already poor, so they had been undermined in their poverty by the impact of global warming, which is the result of the greenhouse gas emissions from the rich lifestyles elsewhere in the world.
Robinson peddles the same message - although in her case wrapped in bogus human rights terminology - as all the other highly paid international bureaucrats and scaremongers - from Ban Ki-moon to R. Pachauri: People in the "rich" western countries are to blame for the poverty and everything else - including purported human caused "climate change" - that is bad in the "developing" countries.
And Mrs. Robinson´s solution to the problem is also the same:
"To achieve climate stabilisation will necessitate radical changes in lifestyle and behaviour"
(quote from the Mary Robinson Foundation - Climate Justice page)
Maybe it would be better if Mrs. Robinson would do a little less travelling and start listening to Africans who really know what it takes to lift poor countries out of poverty.
This Jamaican radio station is soon getting EU competition
The fact that some of the European Union member countries are struggling to avoid total economic and social disaster does not in the least seem to worry those eurocrats who hand out lavish EU funding to countries in the third world. The latest example comes from Jamaica, where His Excellency, EUambassador Marco Mazzocchi Alemanni recently has been busy distributing $70 million worth of project aid (for two years), a great deal of which is going to inmates in Jamaican prisons. For us, the European tax payers, it may be interesting to know that we are paying for e.g. the following:
" Free FM radio network broadcasting for 4,570 inmates from Fort Augusta, Rio Cobre, South Camp Road and Tower Street Prisons" and "licenses for the operation of a radio station"
"24 inmate leaders will participate in a special rehabilitation programme to empower them through improved leadership skills"
By the way, it will be interesting to hear, what name the inmates will choose for their radio station; "The Voice of the Prisoners, Your Local EU station" would be an excellent symbolic choice - also for all future EU-sponsored stations in Europe.
There is one thing the bosses in Brussels most likely are going to blame His Excellency, Mr. Alemannni for: He should, of course, have included a workshop on climate change for the inmates!
Seriously speaking: Why should we, the European tax payers, pay for an prisoner´s radio station in Jamaica? Or leadership and music courses for Jamaican inmates?
This is the glossy side of the EU´s climate change assistance
As we all remember, the European Union likes to describe itself as the "global leader" in combatting (imaginary) human induced climate change. Wast sums of European taxpayers´ money are annually distributed to a multitude of projects worldwide in the name of fighting "climate change". In order to show how this money actually is spent, we decided to take a look at just a few of the projects.
The EuropeAid Development and Cooperation Directorate–General (with a staff of over 1250 people) has on its webpage an excellent interactive world map, which allows you to locate a number of different climate change related aid programmes and projects.
Below is a small selection of the projects that EuropeAid, the Directorate General for Development has wanted to highlight in its map, presumably because they are thought to be representative and important:
"Poverty Alleviation Through Capacities Building of Rural Populations" (China)
"This multifaceted poverty alleviation project aims to address rural poverty by building capacity and providing material and technologies to resolve local problems. At its core is the aim to foster awareness of sustainable practices".
Here are some of the results of the €300.000 project:
- "Awareness raising of environmental issues for8328 people" (excellent counting - showing the magnitude of the project in relation to the population of about 1,4 billion people!) - "27 schools with energy-efficient improvements to school buildings" (Did they put EU-made solar panels on the roofs of the schools?)
Comment: This program is certainly not expensive, but still one has to ask, why on earth should the European Union waste €300.000 on a bogus climate change "poverty alleviation" project in China - a country that in reality is more or less bailing out some almost bankrupt eurozone countries! The sheer stupidness of the undertaking must have caused at least a couple of small smiles in the otherwise so stern faces of the Chinese communist leaders.
"CO2 Managers for the Industry in the People´s Republic of China"
"The project aims at preparing the ground for the multiplication of the CO2 management approach in China. To this end it will provide capacity building through the development of expert skills in the field of CO2 management in the private sector".
Here are the main results:
"25 Chinese experts achieved the qualification as a ´CO2 Manager & Trainer´. The managers were organized in a CO2 alumni network".
Comment: European tax payers could have been spared from having to pay the costs, €213.000 (+ a contribution from the Austrian Development Agency ). It is almost certain that nobody will ever check, what this "alumni network" actually will do, if anything, in the future.However, there is another possibility: Could the be a covert EU operation with the aim to create a secret network of dissidents in China? In that case the money is well spent, indeed!
"Carbon footprint & Labelling (Thailand)
"A better understanding of the Carbon Fooprint Method and management as well as carbon footprint labelling systems for Thai academics, food industries and their associated stakeholders"
Comment: €198.559 of tax payers´ money wasted. The only footprint from this project should be the one in the rear of the EU bureaucrat who authorized the money to this senseless project.
"Across the River: A Trans-boundary Peace Park for Sierra Leone and Liberia"
"Establishment of an environment for cross-border conservation at local, national and regional level and a trans-boundary Peace Park."
Comment: One wonders whether the €2,45 million could have been invested in something more relevant than a Peace Park? No wonder, that Czech President Klaus and others often compare the EU with the former Soviet Union.
"Understanding the Findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 4th Assessment Report"
"2,5 day climate change policy dialogue for parliamentarians, government officials, national scientific community, members of civil society and the media"
"100 people attended the dialogues on the first day and more than 50 on the subsequent days"
Comment:No wonder that half of the participants disappeared after lunch on the first day, because not even the lecturing EU propagandists could have claimed to "understand" the "Findings" of the IPCC 4h Assessment Report!The real aim of this project seems to have been to convert Ghana´s elite to believe in the inofficial EU global warming religion. The indoctrination project was a total waste of European tax payers´ money (€1 million). The EU auditors should have a look at who was responsible for this!
These are just a couple of random examples showing what the 3000 or so EU aid diplomats are busy doing worldwide. The interactive map also gives us totals for EU climate change aid for some larger areas. Here are a couple of examples to show you that the alarmist bureaucrats have rather nice sums of (our) money to throw around:
EU climate change aid (2002 - 2009):
Oceania & South Pacific: €82 520 000 (Recently Commissioner Piebalgs announced quite a few new millions)
Asia: €309 139 000
South America: €105 330 000
West Africa: €90 400 000
Expect the annual aid sums to increase during the next few years!
PS
Hopefully voters in the member countries will soon wake up and demand some action against this kind of massive waste of money. Regrettably most Brussels correspondents are not interested in serious investigative journalism into the workings and doings of the almost 40.000 EU bureaucrats or the actions of their supposed masters, the political leaders of the member countries. The corrrespondents seem to be satisfied with reporting minor squabbles and enjoying the niceties on offer in the Belgian capital.
Recently we met EU Commissioner for development, Andris Piebalgs in the capital of the tiny island state Vanuatu, one of the destinations in the Commissioner´s grand tour of the Pacific. His main task during the visit was to announce the EU´s willingness to add 50 million euro to previous EU climate change commitments to a number of “sinking” (not true) islands states. No wonder our dear commissioner was treated royally by his hosts in the different exotic islands he and his entourage visited.
The "official" dark suit look - somewhat out of place in the South Pacific
Unfortunately all nice things must come to an end, and our Commissioner finally had to return to Brussels, in order to prepare for the next exotic trip, this time to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
But before that, the hard working Commissioner found time to visit Ireland – a member country which recently has been in the news for other reasons than climate change.
The Irish Times reports about the Commissioner´s visit:
Andris Piebalgs told a conference organised by Trócaire that EU countries had promised to meet the target of spending 0.7 per cent of GNP on development aid on many occasions and should do so despite the global economic downturn.
Speaking at a Dublin event to discuss Trócaire's Leading Edge 2020 document about the future for international non-government organisations, he warned that the credibility of donor countries was on the line.
"If you don't do this, it is not just the projects that it will fail. If there is no trust, there is no success. If you promise you should deliver," he said.Mr Piebalgs, who is an ex-Latvian finance minister said he would impressing upon the Irish Government that it should make the commitment to the 0.7 per cent target despite the financial position facing the country.He noted that Ireland's contribution peaked at 0.59 per cent in 2009, the first full year of the recession and the development aid budget had been disproportionately cut since.Mr Piebalgs said it was not the "billions in promises" that saved lives but the millions in actual aid.
The EU accounts for 60 per cent of the world's development aid budget. To date only EU countries have met the development aid target. Ireland is behind Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark and Luxembourg but ahead of the rest of the EU in terms of the percentage of its GNP that it gives to the developing world.
Here we have an unelected EU bureaucrat criticising the economically hard hit people of an almost bankrupt member country ( mainly because Ireland is a member of the euro zone) for not spending enough on development - including climate change - aid! This is, of course, an outrage. Mr. Piebalgs should have been thrown out of the country after such an insult. But, as the EU now is in reality master of the Irish house, the reaction of the Irish government was rather timid, to say the least:
the new Minister of State for Trade and Development Jan O'Sullivan said the Government was committed to the 0.7 GNP target by 2015.
However, she conceded this goal would be "difficult to achieve" and it was imperative that the aid given was used to maximise the impact on poor people and communities. Read the entire article here.
Today, after the brief Irish interlude, Commissioner Pielbags should have arrived in Addis Ababa. This time there is very little information available about what he actually will be doing in the Ethiopian capital (Is his PR staff on holiday?) This brief message on his home page is all there is:
Commissioner Andris PIEBALGS visits Addis Ababa
27/03/2011 - 29/03/2011
tothe 4th Joint Annual Meetings of the AU Conference of Ministers of Economy and Finance
participate at
However, judging from what the Commissioner has been doing on similar previous trips (e.g. to the South Pacific) it is not unlikely that he will announce the availability of some new development and climate change aid millions (paid for by the Irish and other member country tax payers) to the African dignitaries gathered in Addis Ababa.
Most likely the Commissioner will not be bothering his hosts with this small problem:
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia, Jan. 31 (UPI) -- The European community will give Ethiopia a $17.8 million grant to build a carbon-neutral economy, the European commissioner for development said.
European Commissioner for Development Andris Piebalgs met Monday with Ethiopian Finance Minister Sufian Ahmed to discuss a grant to implement the Global Climate Change Alliance in the country.
The European Commission said the primary objective of the GCCA is to build a carbon neutral and climate resilient economy in Ethiopia.
Ethiopia is one of the largest recipients of European development aid. Europe also represents one of the largest export markets for Ethiopian goods.
The GCCA program aims to build a healthy climate relationship between the European community and developing countries that the commission said were the most vulnerable to climate change.
Human Rights Watch called on European leaders to pressure Ethiopia to address alleged misuse of development aid. The rights group said international financial assistance to Ethiopia has increased along with political repression in the country.
"Government services, funded by the European Union and other donors, are administered in a partisan way so that essential agricultural inputs, land, and even food for work programs are used as tools to reward loyal supporters and punish the families of members of the opposition, with serious humanitarian consequences," the rights group said in a statement.
And this subject will definitively not be on the Commissioner´s agenda when he meets the African dignitaries:
Britain warns EU over corruption in its aid programmes
Britain warned the EU on Monday that it was ready to withhold hundreds of millions of pounds from the body's international aid programmes if it does not tackle pervasive corruption and waste.
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Andrew Mitchell, the International Development Secretary, has teamed up with his Swedish counterpart in a campaign to force Brussels to open up its aid spending to independent scrutiny. He told a meeting in Brussels that he and Gunilla Carlsson, Sweden's development minister, were ready to block co-operation to promote change.
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Studies have found that administrative costs swallow up far more of EU spending than the best performing national aid programmes. It has been estimated that the EU's own mistakes result in delays in 40 per cent of all projects. The aid budget accounts for one-fifth of fraud enquiries in the EU.
Another subject not on the Commissioner´s agenda with the African dignitaries is this:
SPIEGEL Interview with African Economics Expert
"For God's Sake, Please Stop the Aid!"
The Kenyan economics expert James Shikwati, 35, says that aid to Africa does more harm than good. The avid proponent of globalization spoke with SPIEGEL about the disastrous effects of Western development policy in Africa, corrupt rulers, and the tendency to overstate the AIDS problem.
Shikwati: Such intentions have been damaging our continent for the past 40 years. If the industrial nations really want to help the Africans, they should finally terminate this awful aid. The countries that have collected the most development aid are also the ones that are in the worst shape. Despite the billions that have poured in to Africa, the continent remains poor.
SPIEGEL: Do you have an explanation for this paradox?
Shikwati: Huge bureaucracies are financed (with the aid money), corruption and complacency are promoted, Africans are taught to be beggars and not to be independent. In addition, development aid weakens the local markets everywhere and dampens the spirit of entrepreneurship that we so desperately need. As absurd as it may sound: Development aid is one of the reasons for Africa's problems. If the West were to cancel these payments, normal Africans wouldn't even notice. Only the functionaries would be hard hit. Which is why they maintain that the world would stop turning without this development aid.
Many other experts have come to the same conclusion as Dr. Shikwati. The prominent economist Dambisa Mayo is one of them:
PS
This blog will continue to observe Commissioner Piebalgs at work and is looking forward to keep its readers informed about about exciting new destinations on his schedule.
