€633,000 in cash just “resting” in an MEP’s apartment. Is this a one off or the tip of a large EU government scandal?
Not a small minority here though. Fairly standard nationalist fare these days.
an EU Parliament vice president and the Chair of the human Rights sub committee, who also founded a Brussels based human rights NGO which names several past and present EU officials on its board are arrested and charged with corruption.
You do have to wonder how much money the EU has given to Fight Impunity to fund its work and if this NGO is also involved. Certinly plenty of the board members seem to be jumping ship.
This is very much an EU scandal.
That, I would agree on, yes. It's definitely a stain on the European Parliament as a whole if they have corrupt MEPs among their ranks and it doesn't look good that a vice president might be involved.
A very small minority do yeah, I certainly don't but most sensible people can be critical of the EU when it is justified to be so especially in a case like this.
I wonder how much that charlatan ex Brit army thug Craughwell trousered for that?
Trying to say that this is an "EU corruption" scandal would really be stretching things. There are probably many MEPs who hate the EU and European Commission as much as Nigel Farage and the Daily Express do. Even the European Parliament vice president is still an MEP primarily and not working for the EU 'per se'.
But it would be a slur on the state that one of of its reps was found taking bribes. Michael Lowry is a continuing stain on the state and its reputation.
And some Irish people think that Ireland should sacrifice its freedom and prosperity to become a vassal to the former imperial power that raped and pillaged it repeatedly.
I fail to see your point?
I will correct my earlier statement though.
An EU Parliament Vice President, an EU parliament MEP, an EU MEP's accredited assistant (who is the assistant to the arrested MEP and the spouse of the Vice President) and one further assistant have all been arrested. this i serious stuff, is it not?
Or are you just going to trot out the "Nothing to see here" line?
But MEPs don't work for the EU. The European Parliament contains everything from the far right to the far left. It would be like claiming that some independent TD (or TDs) being found to have accepted bribes would somehow be a slur on the Dáil or the Irish state.
it would be interesting to see the expense reports from all those that attended this little jolly
Some Irish people believe that the EU is a utopia and that no wrong doing can occur within it's institutions.
Nothing whatsoever to do with them it was friend of the west Qatar doing the bribing.
you're the first to highlight whataboutery and yet here we are.
Four MEPs are arrested, one of whom is the vice president of the EU parliament. That's pretty significant stuff, wouldn't you agree?
I'd say this will end up in the European courts. AFAIK and I'm open to correction of course,, the Chair of the European Parliament decided unilaterally to withdraw parliamentary immunity from Kaili, using an emergency procedure for people caught in flagrante - ie, in the actual course of committing a crime. As I understand it, Kaili's crime (assuming she committed one!) had been committed at some point in the past.
As a result, Kaili is very likely to contest her decision, all through the Belgian courts and on through the EU Court of Justice etc if need be.
While the evidence against her seems strong, the incorrect use of procedures could lessen the impact on her, or at least return her immunity while the business goes through the courts. That could take years. It could also leave Metsola in a dificult place.
This clearly doesn't affect the others involved in the case, who would not have had immunity as they are not MEPs.
But the vice president of the European Parliament is an MEP of course. If we found out that the Qataris had been bribing Ursula von der Leyen or one of the EU Commissioners, this would be a scandal of a whole different order.
The EU forms and enacts legislation and has a legal system to oversee it and enforce adherence. It even has something called a parliament. That's close enough to the functions and appearance of a government that I wouldn't be lecturing people and arguing the toss.
I'll believe that when I see proof.
Its not easy to run 3 houses on an MEP's salary, you should try it sometime
Continental Europe would have a much bigger corruption problem than Ireland, especially in France, Italy, Belgium, Spain, Austria, Germany has significant problems in its Landesbanks, and then there is Eastern Europe and the Med. at a whole different level.
I would say the same for people who always seem to insist on dragging a debate into pointless semantics, rather than discussing the actual issue.
The EU has a system of governance.
That's it. The EU is in many ways more democratic and accountable than a lot of European countries, particularly the UK. In the UK, this person would get a peerage if they're sufficiently loyal to the PM.
I had to experience CD’s brand of politics when she was president of DCU student union. Back then it was constant attempts to rouse up the downtrodden student masses to stick it to the man, much to the indifference of the student body.
In all fairness, she has been consistent in her politics down the years. It would appear that the current corruption raids were based on well founded evidence, as it is quite a move to make based on suspicion only.
To look to persecute someone based on their political opinion is not a good idea. Much better to express opinions come election time.
Was thinking something similar. The arrest and sacking of this politician has happened quickly. (Whether it’s tip of the iceberg stuff of few bad eggs etc all needs to be investigated properly of course)
However if a similar type of bribe/incentive/‘gift’ was made to an Irish politician I would not be at all confident an immediate expulsion/sacking/arrest as appropriate would follow. I do think we have a functional and largely honest parliament and democracy but we also have members of the Dail who have been caught red handed taking large gifts and a very active image rehabilitation ongoing for a former Taoiseach who did the same.
The lobbying industry in Brussels is immense, and you would have to be very naive to think it does not veer in to corruption more than occasionally.
25k lobbyists do their work in Brussels according to the Economist.
This is tip of the Iceberg and was on a topic of no commercial value.
It's basically the Qataris trying to buy influence. It's concerning, but not altogether surprising.
The amount involved is very large, but otherwise this is not dissimilar from things we have seen more than once in national parliaments. In fact most national parliaments have a mechanism for MPs to declare the donations, freebies, etc, they get from people hoping to secure their attention or influence, and where there's a scandal it's usually not because a wodge of money was handed over but because the MP concerned failed to declare it.
Could be worse.
Here in the UK, they get peerages and nobody in the media asks questions.
Qatar might have been bribing the vice president of the European Parliament, and possibly others.
I wonder what Clare & Mick think about this.
Well there are a couple of others I can think of who have gone to extraordinary efforts to support Russia in this time of it's great need. It might be prudent to extend the scope of the enquiry to encompass MEPs who seem to exert more effort in furthering the interests of non EU countries, than their.
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