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Whistle blower says EU stalling on corruption controls

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EU whistle blower Marta Andreasen claims corruption is still rife within the bloc's bloated bureaucracy, even as she prepares an appeal against her sacking.

Last week, the pinup girl of Euro-politicians fighting what they see as an enormous waste of taxpayers' money handed British government fraud investigators documents she claims support her allegations of institutionalised fraud and graft.

'High EU officials who have had the power for years don't want control brought into the European Commission,' said Ms Andreasen. 'What I was proposing was real reform that would bring control to funds. But this would bring up questions about the past, and they know probably better than me what would come up if that happened.'

The Argentinean-born accountant was sacked this month by the commission, the 25-nation bloc's executive arm, after a two-year suspension for going public with her allegation its accounting processes were open to wide-scale fraud.

Her case has received strenuous support from British conservative members of the European Parliament led by Chris Heaton-Harris, who has mounted a two-year campaign calling for commission vice-president Neil Kinnock to be dismissed over the issue.

But the EU has countered that most of her complaints have already been fixed by reforms due to come in next year. EU officials, in a series of leaks, have suggested Ms Andreasen is flaky.

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