Marta Andreasen in the spotlight
Interview by Dave JonesCBNEWS spoke this week to MEP Marta Andreasen, who is known to many expats for championing causes affecting Britons in Spain such as property abuses.
Mrs Andreasen (born 26 November 1954) is an Argentine-born Spanish accountant, employed in January 2002 by the European Commission as Chief Accountant and notable for raising concerns about flaws in the commission's accounting system, which she felt left it vulnerable to potential fraud.
She was subsequently elected as a Member of the European Parliament for United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) in 2009. Becoming increasingly disillusioned with the direction and management of the party, coupled with the inability and unwillingness of UKIP MEPs to meaningfully seek change within the EU, she moved in February 2013 to the Conservative Party, where she continues her work on the Budget and Budgetary Control Committees.
Was your move to the Conservative party over personal differences with party leader Nigel Farage?
As many will be aware I was the Chief Accountant of the European Commission. I was sacked - almost 10 years ago - after refusing to sign off accounts and make payments that were incorrect. After my experience I came to the conclusion that the EU needed real reform but would never achieve it given the strong opposition exercised by the powers that be within its bureaucracy. I joined UKIP with the idea that its aim was to offer a political option to the three main parties that would give British citizens a say on EU membership and would ensure respect for the outcome of the referendum.
Whilst this may well be the intention that the party grassroots have, I cannot say the same about the party leader Nigel Farage. Mr Farage spends little to no time meaningfully defending British people's interests in the European Parliament. He is only interested in appearing in the media. He has not actually developed a coherent strategy for the party. He is, in fact, not particularly interested in winning any representation in Westminster but instead in taking votes away from the Tories.
However, the Conservative party is now the only one offering a referendum on EU membership. UKIP is not offering such a possibility and will never be in a position to do so as it will never be in government. People should be aware that Mr Farage has never ever campaigned for an EU referendum, even if he is happy to jump on the bandwagon!
This is essentially the reason why I moved out of Ukip and joined the Conservatives.
Should Britain pull out of the EU?
As I mentioned before, I am of the opinion that the EU will never reform. It has proven to be a failed project into which it has dragged member states without assuming any responsibility for the ludicrous state of affairs in which many countries find themselves today.
Also, the EU bureaucracy continues to push forward its Federal Europe project, describing it as a way to end the present economic crisis. The UK should not accept rule from this incompetent entity nor should it continue to allow the EU to waste its taxpayers' money. The British Prime Minister has announced a renegotiation of the relationship that the UK has with the EU and this is a positive step forward for the country but I doubt the EU will allow him to repatriate significant powers. I believe it will take a serious threat to leave the EU substantiated by a referendum where people loudly call for withdrawal, to make the bureaucrats in Brussels realise their game is up.
If the British people vote to leave the EU in a referendum, how would you see the future for UK expats living in Spain, particularly those who are working here?
In the last four years I have been involved in defending the interests of UK expats living in Spain and I have helped some of them deal with serious issues they have had to face in that country. As many of your readers will know, I have fought for British expats' rights in regards to property ownership and bank guarantees. I have also helped in other instances such as medical history and repatriation procedures. To be blunt, I have to say some of these people have had a hard time and the European Parliament and the European Commission have lent deaf ears to all the claims they have put and I have put on their behalf. Therefore, in my view, things cannot become much worse than they are today if the UK were to leave the EU.
British expats working in Spain would obviously have to go through a bureaucratic process to obtain a work permit if the UK left the EU. But I have to say that given the tightening on immigration controls taking place these days - and this certainly includes the UK - things will become tougher anyway.
The main issue is that Spain needs British investment and that should be the guiding principle that makes the national and local authorities strive to make life easy for British expats. If they miss that point, which they actually are doing today, forget about the EU…
The EU is seen by some as a profligate waster of taxpayers' money. Is there room for the EU to become more streamlined? How?
Having seen how the EU administrates taxpayers' money from the inside when I was its Chief Accountant, I can say that there is enormous room for streamlining EU costs but unfortunately, the bureaucracy has no will to do so and never will.
There are many areas where costs could be cut and funds used for other more productive purposes. Take for example the European External Action Service (EEAS) currently headed by Baroness Ashton: it costs 500 million euros per year, it employs highly paid officials - some earning more than the British Prime Minister - it rents very expensive premises… and what has it achieved since its creation almost 3 years ago? Has it successfully intervened in the conflicts neighbouring the EU? NO. So why continue to fund such a project? Why continue to fund space GPS projects such as Galileo, for which the technology is already on the market and done cheaper by others? Why continue to give away structural funding to countries that have shown themselves unable to properly invest it?
Spain has received 130 billion euros in the last decade and there is little evidence that all this money has helped grow its economy. Similarly, Greece has received 60 billion in the same period and where does it stand today?
There is growing dissatisfaction with the EU in many European countries, including Britain and Spain. In Spain much of the anger stems from 'forced austerity'. Should the EU continue in this line, or is it time to stimulate job creation in Spain?
In general terms I am not of the opinion that austerity by itself will get Europe out of the crisis. The EU fails to understand that the crisis has different root causes in different member states. It believes in the 'one size fits all' approach and this is utterly wrong. Spain's main economic problem is and has been the 'property bubble'. This is the real root cause underlying unemployment and bank collapses. In as much as this cause is not addressed, Spain will not be able to start growing or overcome the crisis. The property bubble is still there as prices have not suffered the necessary deflation. To make things worse the EU has bailed out banks that are ostensibly bankrupt and non-efficient, which is increasing Spain's level of debt and its taxpayers' burden while at the same time small and medium enterprises are failing to obtain the necessary credit to continue operating. In short, it's a mess.
In Spain there are dozens of examples of unneeded infrastructure/building projects that have resulted in billions of euros of taxpayers' money being wasted (for example Castellón airport, Torrevieja's part-EU funded desalination plant, ghost motorways, etc). How would you resolve this? Do the regions have too much power? Should the political set up be changed to allow more central planning from the national government?
I consider the investment of European funds in unnecessary projects a fundamental failure in the European Commission's management of European taxpayers' money. I can say this from an informed point of view as this was my criticism when I was Chief Accountant. The Commission is happy to ask for more money from member states but turns a blind eye as to how and where the money is spent. While I agree that regions have too much power, the main issue is that they have not demonstrated that they are administratively efficient…to put it mildly.
People should know that funds flow directly from the EU coffers to regions so the entity that should put the questions and evaluate the soundness of the investment in all its aspects is the European Commission, before it pays the money. Even if the funding was centralised via the central government, the need for the EU administration to verify the proper use of funds before paying is essential. But the Commission refuses to exercise this control. No wonder the European Court of Auditors have failed to clear the EU budget for the last 18 years!
For more information from Mrs Andreasen, see her website www.martaandreasen.com
For information on postal voting in European elections go to http://www.aboutmyvote.co.uk/register_to_vote/british_citizens_living_abroad.aspx
Exclusive interview with the MEP championing causes affecting Britons in Spain
Marta Andreasen with Helen Prior
