Fraud and waste in the EU is "endemic", the Tories claimed yesterday.

After the National Audit Office revealed that member states uncovered fraud and irregularity in the spending of £700 million of EU money in 2000, Chris Heaton-Harris, a Tory MEP, said that "mismanagement is endemic within the Commission and that it continues to fail the taxpayers of Europe."

However Neil Kinnock, the commission vice president disagreed. He said: "What we are describing is not laxity in the member states. It is systems that need to be brought into common standards and total vigilance and effecting accounting."