3. Recalls that as regards the financial year 2006 (as was also the case for the financial year 2005) the ECA's accounts were audited by an external firm, KPMG, which concluded that: "[...] the financial statements give a true and fair view of the financial position of the European Court of Auditors as at 31 December 2006 and of its operating results for the year then ended, in accordance with Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1605/2002 of 25 June 2002, the implementing rules thereof, generally accepted accounting principles and the European Court of Auditors' Internal Rules".

In 1997, the recognised accountancy firm, Lloyd, estimated annual fraud at eight billion euros.

But if we do, would it not be far quicker, cheaper and more cost-effective to commission one of our great European accounting firms to do the work?

As with so many EU initiatives – I am thinking particularly of the proposed food standards agency – this observatory will simply duplicate the work of other organisations, of innumerable private research companies and accountancy firms, of academic and university institutes, of trade unions and chambers of commerce, and national and local government.

I'm not going to get into a debate this morning, given that I only have five minutes to talk about whether or not the AIDA program is good, bad, or otherwise, but I did want to take an opportunity to go through and highlight a number of issues from an accounting perspective and the challenges the producers and the accounting firms are faced with in terms of trying to complete the applications and actually get dollars into the hands of the farmers.