eurealist.co.uk

The Press: EU funds Athens Olympics rescue
Almost £3billion of YOUR cash is being pumped into Athens‘ botched Olympic preparations – nearly £50 for every man, woman and child in Britain. Last night, with workers struggling to complete the main stadium and HALF the other projects, critics blasted the huge payments. Andrew Allum, chairman of British anti-waste group the Taxpayers’ Alliance, said: “…What’s worse is that UK taxpayers have contributed £2.9billion to this disaster…” The British contribution forms part of a £22.9billion package of EU Olympic aid. As well as sporting arenas and the Olympic village, air, road and rail links are being massively improved.
(The Sun, 13 April 2004)

The Facts:

Greece, along with the United Kingdom and all other Member States, receives EU funding to help develop and regenerate poor regions, but the country has not received a “£22.9billion package of EU Olympic aid”. Between 2000-2006, £17bn of EU regional funding will be given to boost jobs and infrastructure across the whole of Greece, not just in Athens. This money would have been allocated regardless of whether Athens was hosting the Olympics. The UK receives around £10.5bn of EU regional funding for the same period.

Notes:

First I have heard of this one, however a quick google turned up a couple of mentions that dispute the EU fact? :

Greece has been a major net beneficiary of the EU budget; in 2004, EU transfers accounted for 3.6% of GDP and are estimated to have been approximately 3.2% of GDP in 2005. From 1994-99, about $20 billion in EU structural funds and Greek national financing were spent on projects to modernize and develop Greece’s transportation network in time for the Olympics in 2004.

 
EU transfers to Greece continued with approximately $24 billion in structural funds for the period 2000-2006.

 
And in relation to the London Olympic bid.

 
The real scandal of Athens 2004 is that the projects generally referred to as the ‘legacy’ of the Olympics are in fact being paid for not out of the ATHOC budget, nor even out of the Greek Government Olympic budget, but out of the European Union’s regional development funds, but no one from the UE is auditing them.

 
The majority of the Eur 20.9 billion costs are being met by the Community Support Frameworks II and III for Greece (Eur 18.5 billion and 26.6 billion respectively), with much of the remaining funding taking the form of subsidised loans from the European Investment Bank.

Amazingly, despite the huge sums being doled out, the EU does not maintain a list of projects supported by CSF III. Money is distributed to qualifying projects by selected local “partnerships”.

They only inform the EU of the individual projects when the whole programme is closed (i.e. all the money is gone).

CSF III is not expected to close until 2009. Until then, the Greek Government can effectively direct the EU money-hose wherever it wants.

The EU does not even have a list of projects, let alone any financial information it could audit, for nearly a decade.