For the thirteenth year in succession, the European Union’s auditors have refused to sign off on the European Union’s accounts, and, in doing so, has lambasted the EU’s accounting system for its systemic flaws.

The European administration has, as usual, buried its head in the ground, and mistaken a fleck of paint for a silver lining.  Apparently, the EU being found to be - once again - ungovernable and unaccountable is a good news story, at least for Siim Kallas, European Commissioner for auditing and former PM of Estonia:

I am glad to see the Court now gives its green light to over 40% of total payments, compared to roughly 1/3 last year, and only 6% three years ago.

Which, of course, means that 60% of the budget is completely and utterly unaccountable.  Is that really a good news story?

Despite this outbreak of insanity, I like Kallas a lot, and often cite the Reform Party that he once led into government as a working European libertarian party. In their own words (fortunately in English, because my Eesti is rusty):

We want Estonia to become a state of free citizens, where the Government intervenes as little as possible in peoples’ lives, doing this only where it is absolutely necessary for ensuring society’s security and preserving and developing the Estonian society and culture.

Sound!

But they also claim:

The policy of the Reform Party is based on the principle of open society.

Popper may not be entirely happy with them hijacking his work and claiming it works for them when their ex-leader, their ex-Prime Minister, defends the indefensible and presides over the worst-managed public accounts in the world.

Worse for claims of governmental transparency and the promotion of the free society, the European Union’s accounts continually fail, despite the EU having its own in-house auditing team, working by its own rules. This is illegal for any company auditing in the European Union. Perhaps more damning is the fact that it’s also illegal for any statutory auditor:

Articles 24 and 25 of this Directive require EU Member States to prescribe that statutory auditors do not carry out statutory audits, either in their own right or on behalf of an audit firm, if they are not independent.

And that’s because independence is critical to making sure that the numbers do add up, rather than relying on the institution employing wishful thinking and the honour system.  As far as the European Union is concerned:

Independence is also the profession’s main means of demonstrating to the public and regulators that statutory auditors and audit firms are performing their task at a level that meets established ethical principles, in particular those of integrity and objectivity.

So, there you go.  By not opening their accounts to external auditors, they’re proving themselves to have no ethical principles, integrity, or objectivity.  For an institution that styles itself as a ‘court’, they’re a bit hopeless, aren’t they?

The complexity of the European Union’s system of financial governance makes good accounting almost impossible, so it can’t come as much of a surprise that their accounts once again failed to make the final cut.

However, that complexity is the EU’s own fault.  The decision to rob European citizens of their right to know how government acts, supposedly in their name and certainly with their money, runs counter to the principles of responsible government and democratic values.

The inability of those in the ivory towers to justify their actions and spending is entirely in-keeping with the other policies of the European Union, which serve to obfuscate and deny a say to the people whom they are governing: the worst practices of the worst of despotisms.  That is not in the interest of the people or their governments, and must be addressed before it undermines what is left of virtue in the ‘European project’.  If, however, that is the EU’s intent, they must perish as would any despotism.