Bid to boost trust in EU spending

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Ministers are to produce a yearly statement on EU spending in the UK, in a bid to end the "annual embarrassment" of accounts rejected by auditors.

Economic Secretary to the Treasury Ed Balls said member states had to work towards a "clean bill of health".

The European Court of Auditors has rejected the EU's accounts for the last 12 years in a row.

Mr Balls said Parliament would in future get a written statement on how EU funds had been spent in Britain.

'Bigger role'

This would have to be cleared by the National Audit Office, he told BBC Radio 4's World at One.

Mr Balls said he would urge all other member states to follow suit when he meets fellow finance ministers in Brussels on Tuesday to discuss the EU's budget for 2007.

About four fifths of EU spending is jointly managed between the European Commission and member states.

Mr Balls said: "We can't make the case in Britain for Europe playing a bigger role in important issues in the future...if at the same time we can't pass a simple test like showing we can spend money wisely and in a way which passes the auditors' tests."

The EU needed a sounder financial basis if it was to fight problems such as climate change, he added.

Mr Balls said: "While we have been making some progress, it's not fast enough."