EU: And now for the good news….The Unelected are in retreat on all fronts.

An an unlikely turnaround, some elected Europeans are keeping their beady eyes on the barmy bureaucrats of Brussels.

EU Foreign Minister Catherine Ashton’s new office is to overlook the Commission and Council buildings. The Commission is expected to lease 50,000 square metres of the 60,000 square metre block for at least 15 years at a cost of around €10 million a year to house Lady Ashton’s European External Action Service (EEAS). Said a middle-ranking sprout:

“It’s important for [Lady Ashton] to have her own premises, so that if she calls a meeting everybody is close to hand, but also to make the right impression when visitors come”.

But if that sounds like business as usual on the train de jus, be of good cheer: there is more than a whiff of anti-Brussels revolution in the air, and it gladdens my heart to smell it.

Widespread media interviews with Slovak Prime Minister Iveta Radicová on the subject of Greek (and future) bailout packages produced some very quotable quotes about the importance of being elected.

In Die Welt, she commented on EU Commissioner Ollie Rehn’s public criticism for not taking part in the bailout thus: “The way in which [he], a non-elected official from Brussels, spoke about the freely elected members of the Slovakian parliament was insulting. I will demand an official apology for this from Brussels during my visit to Berlin”.

FAZ got her on even more of a roll:

“Europe must not be constituted by a big brother and many satellites which have to obey the larger, more powerful and wealthy. We remember very well what it means to be a satellite…I don’t want to compare, I only want to highlight that democracy also means to listen to the arguments of those who may be very small but are aware of their responsibilities. Talk that Slovakia is acting irresponsibly must stop. To say it in all clarity: when democratically elected politicians raise criticisms they have the right to do so. But European administrators do not have this right, not at any time”.

On a bigger canvas, French Budget Minister François Baroin held talks with German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble in Berlin yesterday, and the two ministers agreed to fight side by side to ensure that the increase in the next EU budget should be limited to 2.9% as opposed to the 5.9% proposed by the European Commission. I understand that the Osborne Treasury’s view remains firmly one of 0%.

Meanwhile, the 24/7 watch on Brussels’ somewhat bumbling attempts at stealth taxes continues. There is a fight ongoing in the EU about proposals for a financial transaction tax. Although finance ministers are planning to ‘come to an agreement’ on the issue in the Ecofin meeting on 7 September, the meeting seems likely to end in deadlock: France and Germany are in favour, but are isolated, while “the UK and Sweden are strictly opposed. According to diplomatic sources, all the other member states are silent.

And where is Herman of Rompuy these days? Well, the Belgian Beast has his hands full dealing with his elected oppo, José Manuel Barroso of Spain. Jose has set out his stall as the champion of a liberal EU – and as yet, van Rompuy has no answer to the Spaniard’s claim. He must hope that Jose will be swept away by the tidal wave heading for that country.

Do not be fooled: this is not game, set and match. But it is a mens singles 5-setter semi-final – and we are 5-2 up in the third, having squared the first two. There is still a lot to do before a People’s Champion can be hailed.

FRENCH CREDIT RATING SECURE, SAYS GOVERNMENT WHOSE ESTIMATE OF BENEFIT FRAUD WAS OUT BY A FACTOR OF TEN.

Francois Baroin

France’s credit rating is not at risk, its budget minister Francois Baroin said today. Everyone in Paris is therefore convinced this has become an eventuality. France enjoys a top AAA debt rating, although nobody here is entirely sure why: the annual deficit has been off-limits ever since the Euro’s launch, and it continues to grow steadily. There was little doubt in most official minds earlier this month to whom Angela Merkel was really referring when she mentioned the ‘regular fiscal indiscipline’ of certain members.

M. Baroin told RTL radio that France is still a safe haven for lenders seeking a reliable government borrower, but there is a growing feeling among such lenders that – certainly in the West – reliable government is an oxymoron. In Britain we realised the necessity of treating every Government as utterly unreliable round about 1990, and sovereign lenders are these days equally unwilling to believe much of the fantasy that emerges from european treasuries from time to time.

“Some of us think they just lie” said one to me last week, “but my own view is that they don’t have a clue what’s going on”. So I thought of that person this morning when the Caisse Nationale d’Allocations Familiales announced that their previous benefit-fraud figures had been a gnat’s out here and there.
It seem that the total of all those committing benefit fraud in France is 20 times greater than initial estimates – and the cost to the system is 10 times bigger. They’re both silly-big numbers, but even so the fact that 20 is twice ten suggests that (a) people are ripping off less per head than they thought and/or (b) not many French realise how easy it is to do this on a grand scale and get away with it, or (c) Gallic fraudsters still have a sense of proportion. The report (which estimates that some 200,000 people are being paid benefits to which they are not entitled) was leaked to Le Parisien. Its unsurprising conclusion was that the authorities have a “major problem with detecting fraud”. Or put less politely, civil servants know not the cul from the tete.
Its costing the Tresor Publique €800m a year – which isn’t that much actually. But don’t hold your breath waiting for a similar report into French tax evasion. The average French self-employed worker regards this activity as a national duty, and a way to remind politicians as to the reality of who’s running things.

We should think about doing more of this in England.