Billions wasted on EU wannabes - The Sunday Times

There was a really interesting article in last week's 'Sunday Times'  written by Bojan Pancevski.

The highlights:

The EU is splashing out billions of pounds to smooth the access of countries that have no chance of joining the bloc in the foreseeable future.

Around £8.3 billion has been spent to assist Turkey, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania and several others that, according to the EU officials, will not become members. Britain is contributing £1.1billion.

Mats Persson, head of the London-based think tank Open Europe, said the EU risked"sending billions of taxpayers money into black hole"if there was no prospect of the recipient countries joining the bloc.


"The EU is giving billions to countries such as Turkey, Albania and Bosnia, although these countries do not have any prospect of actually joining even in the long term," said the Earl of Dartmouth, a UKIP (UK Independence Party) Member of European Parliament. "As millions of British people face an uncertain financial future when the spending review comes fully into force, it is high time for the EU to learn some respect for its taxpayers."


You can read the full article here.