Every year the European Court of Auditors, after lengthy scrutiny of the European Union budget, announces that it is unable to sign off the accounts. And every year this sparks angry accusations of institutional fraud, profligacy and incompetence in Brussels. There are calls by member states, usually led by Britain, for the European Commission to tighten its procedures, update its software and institute the kind of accounting system that will clearly state assets and liabilities. Each year the Commission promises to do better. And yet, the following year, the auditors return with the same complaints.

They have done so again this year, refusing again to sign off the accounts. And the criticisms voiced by this newspaper, among many others, are as pertinent today as they were exactly a year ago. There is something wrong with an institution that can never get its sums right or account properly for the money, especially when sums as vast as €110 billion are involved.

The Commission, anticipating criticism, has already prepared its response. Its basic premise is that the system is inherently unfair. In a community of 25 nations, with varying accounting systems, levels of honesty and degrees of transparency, it is exceptionally difficult to account accurately for all items of spending. It is even harder to persuade auditors to give an undertaking that they are satisfied that the accounts are beyond legal challenge. Siim Kallas, the Commission’s vice-president for administration, audit and anti-fraud, claimed this week that the perception of widespread fraud was a myth and that the Commission was being blamed for a failure by member states to audit properly their own handling of EU funds.

It is indeed the case that national governments are happy to blame Brussels for their own failings. They account for about 80 per cent of spending, including the unwieldy budgets for agriculture, regional aid and social spending. The perennial issue of double counting of olive trees in Italy has only become worse with enlargement: this year the issue is the apparent doubling in the estimate of Slovenia’s farm animals. Oversight can easily become malfeasance. And problems are not confined to countries regarded traditionally as more cavalier in their attitudes. The auditors query the registering of animals in Britain, France, Greece, Spain and the Netherlands. Indeed, the Commission has indicated that it may seek to recover some of the €806 million, paid to the Dutch in EU aid for poor regions, that was questioned by the auditors.

The Commission has also pointed out that it has, as urged, introduced accrual accounting, is upgrading its computer software and is tightening inspections — though auditing is a thankless task when there are already 1,100 paying agencies responsible for checking payments to farmers and other recipients of EU funds. The auditors this year found less to query. That does not excuse any fraud. It only underlines the need for perpetual vigilance and greater resolve in policing a budget so diverse and so unwieldy.