Sir Bernard Ingham has derided the EU as corrupt and "riddled with fraud" and questioned why the UK would "ever want to be a member of it at all".
Sir Bernard dismissed David Cameron's renegotiation deal demands as asking for too little.
Writing in the Yorkshire Post, he said: "Why should the UK throw another £12 billion a year down these mafia and assorted criminal drains?"
He added: "Europhiles might usefully address themselves not to the question why we should stay in the EU, but why we should ever want to be a member of it at all when the institution is corrupt and so riddled with fraud that the auditors have felt unable to sign off its accounts for nigh on 20 years.
"It is dedicated to exactly what we do not want - ever closer union. It has already wrecked much of Europe's economy, though not the UK's, with its single currency, and has generated politically dangerous levels of unemployment in its southern states."
He said Britain should not be frightened of "standing on our own two feet".
Mr Cameron is hoping to secure a new deal with the EU at a summit meeting on 18 February.
It has been suggested there will then be a referendum on Britain’s continued membership of the EU on 23 June.
However, on Tuesday, Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond has said an agreement on the UK's renegotiation with Brussels could be delayed beyond a summit next month.
Mr Hammond said it would be "inappropriate and unwise" for the UK to insist on finalising a deal at the European Council summit.
Speaking to the Lords' EU committee, he acknowledged that a June date for the referendum would become "much more difficult" if no agreement is reached in February, and "impossible" if there was no deal at the next summit in March.
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