Fraud in the E.U.

Brussels

Embezzling cost the European Union more than $1 billion last year, the London Times reported this week. That’s equivalent to 1 percent of the E.U.’s entire budget. At least half of the money stolen was intended for farm subsidies. One scam was based on a trade scheme established to help sugar beet farmers in the Balkans export their produce. E.U. bureaucrats in Brussels paid $1.2 million in sugar subsidies to Croatian businessmen before realizing that there was no sugar industry in Croatia. The businessmen collected the subsidies by importing sugar and pouring it into new packages stamped “Product of Croatia.”

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