Marta Andreasen (ECR). - Mr President, during my time as an MEP, this House has come every year, without exception, with a request to increase the EU budget and this, regardless of the current crisis and the austerity measures. Every year too, without fail, the Auditors have refused to approve the management of those EU funds. The problem is one of failure: failure to control that the taxpayers’ money is properly spent.

As recently as July, the Court of Auditors reported EUR 3 billion of waste in road construction projects. This audit only covered four countries so I fear that the overall figure across the EU would be much higher. If we did a proper job we would not need to engage in a multi-million information campaign ahead of the 2014 elections. EU taxpayers do not trust us because we do not look after their interests; we should stop putting more money into this black hole.