MEPs demand Member States improve budget reporting after a damning audit, debates on CAP/CFP reform are delayed, and new moves to reduce EU red tape for business.

Missing billions / CAP reform / Product surveillance

MEPs have called on Member States  to close accounting black holes

running to billions of euros  over the funds they get from the EU.

MEPs responsible for budget oversight  say sectors where the worst of it happens

are also the EU's most expensive:  agriculture and cohesion.

This, after another damning report –  the 18th in a row –

from the Court of Auditors,  chronicling misuse and faulty accounting

Funds are misused,  so that should be corrected, of course.

But we also realise the bureaucratic burden  for the beneficiaries is too high.

We wonder as a parliament why the  Member States don't take the opportunity

together with the Commission  and the Parliament

to simplify the rules  and to lower the error rates.

As the EP awaits settlement  of the EU's long-term budget,

the tight timeframe for the reform of the  Common Agricultural Policy just got tighter.

The vote in Parliament has now been  shunted forward by two months,

jeopardising the chain of talks that have  to be completed in the first half of 2013

if the reform is to come  into force in 2014.

A vote on a Commission draft  of Common Fisheries Policy reform,

also slated for November,  has been delayed by three weeks.

Better news for consumers and users  of pyrotechnics in Europe.

They have a wide range of application  beyond private and public festivities,

including in the automotive industry  to trigger air bags.

MEPs on the Internal Market Committee  this week passed legislation

bringing into line market rules  governing this and other sectors,

harmonising and simplifying the process.

We are trying to reduce red tape  by making it easier to understand the rules

when you are a manufacturer,  or a distributor or an importer

But on the other hand,  it's also a question of creating better safety