International

Thanks to two SP proposals which won the backing of Parliament, an enquiry is to be launched into the cost to the Dutch taxpayer of financial transfers to the European Union. SP Member of Parliament Renske Leijten is pleased that there will at last be a measure of clarity on the matter. “Every year billions of euros are pumped around the European Union,” Leijten explains. “Member states must first transfer moneys to Brussels before doing their best to get some of it returned to them. Anyone with an ounce of sense can see that this system is time-consuming and expensive. It’s excellent that there will now be an enquiry into just how much money is involved. Then we can put an immediate stop to this wastefulness.”

Parliament also supported the proposal for the costs to local authorities to be calculated of applying for subsidies and accounting for their expenditure. “In addition to the enquiry into the costs of the EU’s subsidy policies, we’ll also find out what it actually costs our local authorities to get a subsidy and say how they’ve spent it,” says Leijten.

Each year the EU distributes around €150 billion. The European Court of Auditors has, however, still never been known to approve the relevant accounts, because there are invariably quextion marks over the legality of the way the moneys are spent.