ASHBURTON Twinning Association has had a partial victory in its fight for a Euro-grant – after the intervention of Totnes MP Anthony Steen who has accused the European Commission of 'maladministration and sheer incompetence'.
The application has been tied up in Euro-bureaucracy for 21 months and, even now, less than half of it has found its way to Devon.
The grant, to help pay for cultural exchanges with twin town Cleder in France, was originally applied for in March 2001, Michael Posner, honorary president of the twinning association, revealed.
Nothing was heard until September, when the commission's education and culture department wrote confirming that a contribution of 2,120.00 Euros (about £1,378) would be paid – roughly 19 per cent of the budget.
The forms were duly returned in triplicate with each page initialled and then sent again in November, by recorded delivery, when nothing happened.
In May 2002, Mr Posner rang the commission and was told that all the paper work had been found and everything was in order. Payment was being authorised that day.
Then the association had two faxes saying the commission needed certified copies of all invoices. 'We had already sent these twice,' Mr Posner said.
Another telephone conversation followed – with a different person – who said it needed three people to authorise payment.
'It's a war of attrition,' Mr Posner said. 'If they can make it hard enough nobody's going to claim.'
At this point he took the problem to Mr Steen who wrote to education and culture commissioner, Viviane Reding, asking if court action was necessary to release the promised funding.
'The failure to pay would suggest maladministration and sheer incompetence. It is not just a cheque I expect by return, with interest, but I would like a full explanation and inquiry about this case,' Mr Steen said.
'As a Member of Parliament for a south Devon constituency I should not be involved in ensuring that EU officials do their job.'
Mr Steen had a reply from Neil Kinnock, vice-president of the European Commission on December 2, saying that he had asked Commissioner Reding to look into the matter as soon as possible.
Not long afterwards, about £400 was paid into the twinning association's bank account.
'They might have sent the balance of the money to Cleder, but we'll keep trying to get more out of them.' Mr Posner said. 'I have no problem with Europe, but a major problem with bureaucracy. The forms had to be seen to be believed.'
In a letter to Mr Steen, Annemarie Bruggink from the commission's directorate for education and culture, admitted there had been 'a significant delay' in paying the grant.
She claimed that the twinning association had not provided the commission with a complete file at the beginning of the process.
'I am glad to be able to inform you that a new, simplified grant system has now been introduced for small twinning events. This new system, which has been applied for small projects since the beginning of 2002, has made it easier for the beneficiaries to fulfil the conditions and it has enabled us to cut down significantly the average delay for payments.'