Britain attempts to block EU accounts

The British papers report on news that the UK has attempted to block the EU budget amid concerns over misspending.

In what the FT describes as an "unprecedented step", UK chancellor George Osborne voted against approving the EU's 2010 accounts, along with the Netherlands and Sweden.

However, it adds that the majority of member states did approve the accounts during a meeting in Brussels yesterday.

The paper says the move was designed to protest at perceived misspending in the EU's €140bn a year budget, with European auditors never having given unqualified assent to it in the past 17 years.

Osborne said, "In these challenging times, member states should uphold the same high standards for the EU budget as they would for national budgets."

Elsewhere, BBC News reports that the British government has criticised a planned 1.7 per cent pay rise for EU staff as an "estrangement from reality".

UK treasury minister Chloe Smith urged Brussels to remember that "national taxpayers stand behind" the EU budget, with the House of Commons agreeing that the pay proposals were "completely unacceptable".

"Any suggestion of waste in the EU budget damages the standing of the EU institutions and of the EU as a whole," Smith told MPs.