British taxpayers' money to be used in a new Greek bailout – another reason to give Brussels the boot

By Mark Wallace
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Ambrose Evans-Pritchard reports in today's Telegraph that not only will Greece be given a new EU bailout, but this time British taxpayers' money will be used in the doomed fight to keep the Euro intact.

"The Greek daily Kathimerini said Athens and Brussels are negotiating the use of EU structural funds that draw on the collective EU budget, co-funded by the British taxpayer and other non-euro states."

"Most of the rescue aid so far for Greece, Portugal, Cyprus, and Spain's banking system has come from the eurozone's rescue machinery, outside the EU treaty structure. Britain has provided bilateral aid to Ireland, and is involved in EMU debt rescue policies through the International Monetary Fund, but has otherwise stood aloof."

It is right that Britain has mostly stayed out of such bailouts. We took the wise decision not to join the single currency, and the policy of strapping Greece into the Euro in order to satisfy Germany's economic interests and Brussels' political obsessions is both immoral and unsuccessful.

The way accountability works is that if you make an error then you should bear the consequences. The eurozone should pay for the costs of its mistakes.

Of course, there may be exceptional circumstances when emergency aid can be justified as the people in trouble don't have the cash to stave off absolute disaster. This is true of Greece, but not of the eurozone - Germany is still doing quite well, thank you very much, so why should they use our money and the money of other non-Euro states to try to bung the holes in their project's hull?

This is of course an inherent problem with the EU and the principle of "ever closer union". Eurocrats have carte blanche to use our money however they want, free of the fear of a Commons vote or the wrath of electors come polling day. 

Yet another reason why we should stop sending money and powers to Brussels.