---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Christopher Lawson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Jan 4, 2007 7:31 PM Subject: [romania-economics] A British tabloid's view of Romania in the EU. The Daily Express is not the worst tabloid in the U.K. To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Thu 4 January 2007 17:02 Britain Pays GBP 2.5 B Benefits to Foreigners Views and Records By Nick Fagge The Daily Express Taxpayers in Britain have been saddled with a £2.5billion bill to pay benefits to Romanians and Bulgarians who do not migrate to the UK. The massive tax burden was revealed as Britain braces itself for a wave of up to 600,000 migrants from the two East European countries. Now Britons will also be expected to help boost living standards for those who stay at home rather than come to the UK for work. The £2.5billion forms Britain's contribution towards a six-year £20billion EU funding programme that equates to £105 a year for every UK household. In Romania alone families will see their benefits more than treble over the next few weeks as the billions start to pour in. The disclosure sparked fury last night. Matthew Elliott, of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: "Romania is, in effect, using money from British taxpayers to increase social security benefits. "Our money was meant to help develop the country's infrastructure, not to develop a dependency culture like we see in the UK. "This is bizarre and, frankly, insulting to British taxpayers who are paying for this." On Sunday night the Romanian government lavished from page one the country with dozens of open-air concerts and street parties to celebrate its entry into the EU. Romania's president Traian Basescu told crowds in Bucharest: "By entering the EU we win our peace and our prosperity." In one town alone £1million was spent on its celebrations. Mr Elliott said: "It shows some cheek for the Romanian government to blow so much on a giant party when British taxpayers are forking out for new roads and infrastructure. "If they have so much money to spend on frivolous items we shouldn't be sending over so much for necessary work. There are plenty of roads in the UK that need fixing and these should come first." Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett insists that Britain stands to benefit from Romanian and Bulgarian membership of the EU. But the evidence indicates the real winners will be the impoverished families of the two new EU members. One desperately poor Romanian family told the Daily Express yesterday how they were told their welfare payments would go up when the country got full EU membership in 2007. Niculae Carolea said: "We get £16 a month benefits from the government but we have been told it will go up to £50 a month in the new year. I have the letter to prove it." Mr Carolea, 81, shares the wooden house he built himself with three of his children and their families. They have no running water, no fridge and cook on a wood stove. His grandchildren, though well-dressed and fed, do not go to school. They are needed to tend to the cows, sheep, pigs, chickens and turkeys that roam the muddy farmyard. Mr Carolea added: "We have heard about the good life in England. I know people who have gone there and live well from government money. "Taking other people's money is wrong but you have to live." The Carolea family are not alone. Two-thirds of Romanians live below the poverty line and the average wage is less than £50 a month. Children beg late into the night in every town and city across the country. Despite years of preparation and more than £1billion in EU aid, Romania and Bulgarian still lack basic infrastructure - roads, medical care, social security, food hygiene, clean drinking water and sewerage plants - thanks to decades of neglect and devastating levels of corruption. Such is the risk of vast sums being salted away by unscrupulous officials that the government has been ordered to present a progress report to the EU every six months. The cash handouts to Romania and Bulgaria will be closely monitored by EU auditors but years of backhanders, bribes and kickbacks will be hard to shake off. Former prime minister Adrian Nastase, who faces charges of abuse of office, is one of many high-ranking politicians caught up in cash scandals. Former industry minister Dan Ion Popescu, former deputy prime minister George Copos and ex-transport minister Miron Mitrea all face multi-million-pound fraud inquiries. Romania's main transport link to the outside world, the E68 highway, remains an unlit single lane riddled with potholes, despite huge sums from Brussels to upgrade it. Almost every major town and city lacks an adequate sewerage system but clean water projects worth tens of millions of pounds remain unfinished and behind schedule. Last night one contractor told the Daily Express how British taxpayers' money was being wasted. The senior engineer, who asked not to be named, said: "There are many European companies making a lot of money out of these EU contracts. "They are big jobs and worth millions but all too often they are not done right. The companies know they are going to be paid no matter what so they take their time hoping to make more money. It's a scam." And a senior nurse at the city hospital in Sibiu said: "We don't need any more aid, not until we put a stop to the corruption. There is corruption everywhere - right to the top." [ your opinion ] [ save ] [ print ] [ send ] SUBSCRIBE FOR THE SOFIA WEEKLY The first English language online weekly in Bulgaria www.novinite.com/sofiaweekly Christopher Lawson, CL Communications Consulting SRL, Strada Toma Cozma nr. 9, bloc 8, scara C, apartament 1 parter, 700554 IASI, Romania Tel./Fax +40 232 255086 Mobile +40 726807299 email [EMAIL PROTECTED] Communications Director, Ionic Pools Limited www.pooltronix.co.uk -- ______________ EuroAtlantic Club monitoring Romania's journey towards the EU http://www.europe.org.ro/euroatlantic_club/ mail to: P.O.Box 13-166, Bucharest 011737 e-mail to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
