€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?
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.
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?
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.
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.
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'.
I wonder how much that charlatan ex Brit army thug Craughwell trousered for that?
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.
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.
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.
Not a small minority here though. Fairly standard nationalist fare these days.
Really what party will we be voting for it it's so popular ? If it was a large enough issue there would be talk of leaving. All the major parties must be missing a trick for votes.
There are clearly issues with lobbying and / or bribes in the European Parliament, though how widespread remains to ascertain. There are 700 MEPs but only a small number of implicated ones - it seems the Qataris may have been engaging in the equivalent of "sports washing" i.e. trying to improve their image on the international stage, perhaps get these guys to speak up in favour of the country in the Parliament or something.
Classic story hyped as sexy scandal.
Oooh a politician found taking backhander.
Why I never.
Give me a random national newspaper.
Eu is made out to be incorruptible and a bastion of freedom Everything they do and say is for the common good of the EU. Even Euronews is reporting it.
Is it?
But this is not a story about the EU. Nigel Farage and Ann Widdecombe could theoretically have been two of the MEPs accepting bribes from the Qataris at some point....would that prove the EU was corrupt?
It would prove there was corruption in the EU institutions, yes. Just as the events which actually have happened show that there is corruption in the EU institutions.
It would be a big mistake, though, to suggest that EU institutions are inherently corrupt, or are corrupt in a way that the institutions of national governments are not. The combination of incentives which produces corruption in the EU institutions exists also, and perhaps even more strongly, at the national level, so it would be very surprising if there were not similar problems in national governmental institutions. The acid test is not whether there is corruption, or potential corruption, but how it is dealt with.
yes
who has made out that the EU is incorruptible? do you have any idea how stupid that sounds?
If one were to hang out with Howard Marks, and cheech and chong, thats a sort of a tacit confession that one might smoke the odd joint.
EU has Greece and Bulgaria as members.
Thats kind of a confession in itself.
corruption is part and parcel of governance, you d be naïve to think it doesnt happen here to! no need to be naming and shaming!
Of course it does.
But some places are more corrupt than others.
I dont see any reason not to name.
Facts are facts. Bulgaria and Greece are very corrupt countries.
if you re gonna name and shame, shur you might as well as name every other eu country, including ireland!
how does one go about confirming that some countries are more corrupt than others? i think i ll call bullsh1t on this one!
Really?
Is there a price to calling bullshit?
You could check the corruption perception index compiled by transparency.org.
Bulgaria is the lowest rank of all the EU countries. Greece is 3 places higher.
Now. What sauce would you like with your own words.
not much of a sauce person to be honest, but im not completely sold there now....
...again, theres corruption in every country, including our little one....
No theres no corruption in Ireland, I just dont buy it.
Tip of the iceberg.
Shocking but not surprising.
You can assume that there will be attempts to corrupt governmental institutions. Finding evidence of such attempts is surprising and, to be honest, not that shocking.
The real issues are, (a) how do the authorities react to corruption attempts, and (b) how successful are such attempts?
As to reaction, the EU has reacted vigorously on this occasion — multiple arrests, immediate suspension of the MEP concerned from her parliamentary Vice-President position in a vote passed by a large majority, pressure on her to resign from parliament altogether. This contrasts favourably with reactions in some member states (and former member states; contrast the treatment afforded to Eva Kaili with Boris Johnson's attempts to protect Owen Paterson).
As to how successful the attempt was, we don't know the answer to that yet. To what extent did the Qataris get what they were trying to buy? We don't even know what it was they were trying to buy, much less whether they got it. In general this can be a problem, because a lot of corruption is not specifically goal-oriented. A property developer might pay someone a wodge of money in order to secure approval of this particule planning application, and that does happen. But I think much more common is the payment of money, provisions of gifts, etc to secure a generally favourable attitude. Specific favours might be called in later, or they might not. If they are, there may be no obvious link to the money or gifts, which may be well in the past, and may indeed have been openly declared at the time.
Eva Kaili's lawyers say that she has no idea where 100's of thousands of Euro's came from. Also her father was caught trying to flee the country with a suitcase of cash on Friday. It also sounds like it was not just Qatar who have been paying bags of cash over
She will be singing like a canary soon enough with other prominent names starting to be mentioned already
The EU didnt react at all, it was the Belgian feds who rumbled this little scheme. In fact the Euro lads are currently dancing around addressing the issue at al
https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-leaders-sideline-qatar-scandal-corruption-election-european-council-euco-summit/
No suprise that an parliamentarians who operate outside of the oversight provided by a national electorate or press (for whatever good that is these days) are taking massive bungs.
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