THE WASTE, CORRUPTION AND FINANCIAL FOLLY OF THE E. U.

THE TRUTH ABOUT EUROPE

THE WASTE, CORRUPTION
AND FINANCIAL FOLLY OF THE

EUROPEAN UNION

EU SUBSIDIES UP IN SMOKE - £3/4 Billion is given to tobacco growers in Greece and Italy under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). Yet it is mostly poor quality unfit for EU markets. It is dumped in third world countries seriously damaging their own tobacco farmers. Then this schizophrenic EU gives another œ12M a year to persuade people to stop smoking.

EU TARIFF SHAMBLES - Because of the GATT World Trade Agreements, by 1999 EU tariffs will cost one and a half Billion pounds more to collect than they will make. Only an EU bureaucrat could justify such madness. And with world tariffs so low who needs an EU Customs Union anyway?

CURRENCY CAPERS - To reach the Maastricht criteria for a Single Currency:
- France took the £4.7 billion pension fund off French Telecom and called it a "receipt" although future pension "debts" were ignored.
- Italy took a 1% tax increase off its population - which it promised to give back after they were in the single currency!
- Germany took out of its deficit reckoning the complete cost of its Health Service!! Even then it was only just within the National Deficit EMU criteria!
THE GOLDEN BOOK CLUB - Apart from the new EU parliament costing £670 million pounds, no expense has been spared at the MEP's library. It is estimated that each book borrowed costs the EU taxpayer £46,500 (Wonder how much are the fines for late returns!)

CREAMING THE CROP - The CAP takes by far the largest amount from the E.U.'s budget. Unfortunately only 40% goes to the 'poor' farmers. The other 60% is lost in supporting the (presumably poorer?) administrators and fraudsters! The cost of the CAP to Britain is estimated to be twice the amount actually gained by farmers.

QUITE A QUOTA MILKA DAY! - Italy escaped a massive fine for refusing to enforce milk quotas on its farmers. Instead they were rewarded with 1 million tonnes extra quota if they promised to behave in future. Now 90% of farmers are still ignoring the quotas, 60% of their contracts are found to have irregularities and, in one weird case 1500 cows apparently graze in a luxury 5th floor Rome apartment and produce two million pounds worth of milk!

MAFIA LINKS? - Italy accounts for 60.6% of all EU fraud (as admitted by EU auditors!!). Germany was next with over 12% but the Irish were second in terms of fraud per head of population.

MILKING A WHITE ELEPHANT - The EU Parliament's only function is to be "consulted" by, and "give advice to" the unelected EU Commission making it an enormous "White Elephant". MEP's don't mind because they get enormous salaries. Add £80,000 plus secretarial expenses (often for wives and daughters), outrageous travel expenses (without even having to prove the journey was made). One Spanish MEP made a lucrative career move by literally moving his apartment to Tenerife from where he could claim another £86,000 per year!

PENSIONER POWER! - National Pension debts dwarf Maastricht treaty criteria. Yet if it were taken into account Britain's proportion of debt to GDP is 'only' 74% the lowest in Europe; Germany's would be 142% and the Netherlands is 226%!

Nine headings. It could have been 999.

YOU CAN TRUST THE EU ON THIS!

"A reassuring consistency of all the schemes the European Union puts its hand to is that, whenever you examine them closely, you can be absolutely sure that it will (a) be pouring taxpayers' cash down the drain, (b) not be realising the high-sounding claims that are made for it and (c) be a cover for some sort of racket." Christopher Booker and Dr Richard North, (Article in Eurofacts 24th April 1998)

This leaflet (1 of a series of 12) is a rare chance for people to learn something of -

THE TRUTH ABOUT EUROPE

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