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Boicey

Boicey

Well-Known Member
tisza said:
EU fraud budget. Cases already ongoing against Hungary, Romania & Slovakia off the top of my head for cohesion funds. Agriculture is a historically big one - area payments etc , Greek Olive hectarage was a big one.
www.politico.eu

€1.8B worth of fraud in EU in 2022, watchdog says

Anti-fraud agency says there was a 7 percent increase from 2021.
www.politico.eu www.politico.eu
Click to expand...
Fair play. Worth noting....
"The majority of these, 11,316 — were not criminal but concerned irregularities such as poor management, sloppy record-keeping or insufficient financial controls"
 
Boicey

Boicey

Well-Known Member
tisza said:
Nope.They'll be going hard on military spending - Trump, Musk & Hegeseth already been making briefings about it. Tax dollars is the theme ofthisnew administration.
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They have stated they will increase defence spending.
You might be able to guess where that money will come from. And how that will be ideologically communicated.
 
C

CCFCSteve

Well-Known Member
tisza said:
EU fraud budget. Cases already ongoing against Hungary, Romania & Slovakia off the top of my head for cohesion funds. Agriculture is a historically big one - area payments etc , Greek Olive hectarage was a big one.
www.politico.eu

€1.8B worth of fraud in EU in 2022, watchdog says

Anti-fraud agency says there was a 7 percent increase from 2021.
www.politico.eu www.politico.eu
Click to expand...

The bigger picture is worse, the ‘error rate’ on expenditure is increasing year on year

eucrim.eu

ECA: Increasing Error Rate in EU Spending and Growing Debts Are Cause for Concern

On 10 October 2024, the ECA presented its reports on the implementation of the EU budget for the 2023 financial year. Causes for concern are the increase of the rate of error in EU budget spending and the rising financial…
eucrim.eu eucrim.eu

Whether it’s fraud, waste, unaccounted for cash or misuse of funds etc, I’m guessing there’s billions per annum that, at best, isn’t being well utilised.
 
Captain Dart

Captain Dart

Well-Known Member
shmmeee

shmmeee

Well-Known Member
C

CCFCSteve

Well-Known Member
Sick Boy said:
It really is about time the EU should form its own army.
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So countries like Hungary could veto military actions ? What happens if a far right party gets in Germany or France ? People need to just accept that nato members, especially in Europe, pay their way/a lot more. Citizens of those countries just don’t want it though as it means less spending elsewhere or higher taxes.

I agree that there needs to be a coordinated approach from certain like minded European countries though.
 
Sick Boy

Sick Boy

Super Moderator
CCFCSteve said:
So countries like Hungary could veto military actions ? What happens if a far right party gets in Germany or France ? People need to just accept that nato members, especially in Europe, pay their way/a lot more. Citizens of those countries just don’t want it though as it means less spending elsewhere or higher taxes.

I agree that there needs to be a coordinated approach from certain like minded European countries though.
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The same was said about the Meloni government but they’ve had no choice but to toe the line. I’d like to see Europe be far less reliant on the USA, including getting rid of their military bases here.
 
C

CCFCSteve

Well-Known Member
Sick Boy said:
The same was said about the Meloni government but they’ve had no choice but to toe the line. I’d like to see Europe be far less reliant on the USA, including getting rid of their military bases here.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I agree about Europe becoming far less reliant on US and it’s why I’ve been banging on about European nato members to increase their military/defence spending for years (not that the governments probably read Other Topics on SBT !). Not sure about the military basis but I’d certainly be making it clear to Trump that if he wants a coordinated approach v China he will have to engage with Europe properly on matters important/essential to us and our security

Edit - to be fair meloni is doing what she wants on certain matters. One thing she’s/italy are not doing is spending enough on defence ! They haven’t spend 2% of GDP since 1989 with a lot of years under 1.5%.
 
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S

SBT

Well-Known Member
Sick Boy said:
It was a prediction of what I expected to happen.
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Strange prediction to make given how enthusiastic EU leaders have been about Ukrainian accession

So you don’t think Ukraine should face any special barriers to joining the EU, so long as the usual conditions are met?
 
Grendel

Grendel

Well-Known Member
SBT said:
Strange prediction to make given how enthusiastic EU leaders have been about Ukrainian accession

So you don’t think Ukraine should face any special barriers to joining the EU, so long as the usual conditions are met?
Click to expand...

Ukraine won’t be joining the EU unless they change the membership entry significantly
 
Sick Boy

Sick Boy

Super Moderator
SBT said:
Strange prediction to make given how enthusiastic EU leaders have been about Ukrainian accession

So you don’t think Ukraine should face any special barriers to joining the EU, so long as the usual conditions are met?
Click to expand...
I personally don’t think there should be special barriers but I also don’t think they should be given special treatment and/or fast-tracked over other countries who’ve been trying to join.
 
Grendel

Grendel

Well-Known Member
SBT said:
Well that’s for the EU to decide. If they want Ukraine to join and Ukraine meets the criteria, why stop Ukraine from doing so?
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Well we are not in tbe EU so I don’t really care - it would seem somewhat ridiculous if they just bent the rules but then again it’s the EU so anything’s possible.

surely it would have to be agreed by all member states so can’t see that happening
 
S

SBT

Well-Known Member
Grendel said:
Well we are not in tbe EU so I don’t really care - it would seem somewhat ridiculous if they just bent the rules but then again it’s the EU so anything’s possible.

surely it would have to be agreed by all member states so can’t see that happening
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I must admit the amount of fretting over how to prevent Ukraine from ever joining NATO or the EU makes less and less sense when you then go on to insist it will never happen anyway.
 
Grendel

Grendel

Well-Known Member
SBT said:
I must admit the amount of fretting over how to prevent Ukraine from ever joining NATO or the EU makes less and less sense when you then go on to insist it will never happen anyway.
Click to expand...

Im not fretting. It’s you that seems to have some obsession with it.
 
Grendel

Grendel

Well-Known Member
tisza

tisza

Well-Known Member
shmmeee

shmmeee

Well-Known Member
tisza said:
The Trump administration has no time for a group it perceives as being overly liberal and weak. Holds EU in same low levels of esteem as it holds the Democrat party.
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They think the Italian government is woke because they won’t support Nazis. Im not sure their opinion is worth much in the real world.
 
B

Brighton Sky Blue

Well-Known Member
Pretty thought provoking this, even though Triple H is in the immediate background as Linda McMahon interviews to head a department she's trying to shut down.

 
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