How much happier is it possible to make our anti-EU chums than this little story, just a few days after the EU’s damp squib birthday celebrations?<\/p>\n
Mass dawn raids over EU ‘Mafia links’<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n
More than 40 dawn raids were carried out in four countries yesterday by police investigating alleged Mafia involvement in European Union security and building contracts worth millions of euros…<\/p>\n
The investigation involves suspected bribery of European civil servants, forming a criminal organisation, violating professional secrecy, breaches of public tender laws and forgery<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Superb! Nice job, EU-type chaps! We already know that the Commission’s riddled with corruption and that even the EU’s anti-fraud office OLAF<\/a> is, if not wilfully aiding corruption, then piss-poor at cleaning it up, but this takes the proverbial.<\/p>\n
Further EU fraud reading:<\/strong><\/p>\n
– Wikipedia on whistleblower Paul van Buitenen<\/a> (whose investigations led to the fall of the Santer Commission<\/a> back in 1999)<\/p>\n
– Wikipedia again on the slightly nutty Hans-Peter Martin MEP<\/a> (who exposed the widespread fiddling of expenses by MEPs)<\/p>\n
– The pathetic failure to even attempt to punish ex-Commissioner (and former French Prime Minister) \u00c3\u2030dith Cresson<\/a> even after she was found guilty of abusing her position for personal gain (see Case C-432\/04<\/a> at the European Court of Justice last year – and also the EU Law Blog on the same<\/a><\/p>\n
– The abysmal treatment of the EU’s former chief accountant Marta Andreasen<\/a>, who pointed out that the lack of double-entry bookkeeping in the EU institutions (a standard for accounting for centuries) left the place wide open to fraud (her figure of a potential 10,000 cases in 2002 alone, however, being just that: potential; she didn’t try to point to specific examples, just systemic failures that would allow for up to 10,000 cases of fraud a year), only to be suspended for “violating Articles 12 and 21 of staff regulations, failure to show sufficient loyalty and respect” – wonderfully adding to the eurosceptic arsenal of “the EU’s an authoritarian hellhole” missiles<\/p>\n
– Politics.co.uk on EU budget fraud<\/a><\/p>\n
– Marta Andreasen on “the EU’s culture of corruption”<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
How much happier is it possible to make our anti-EU chums than this little story, just a few days after the EU’s damp squib birthday celebrations? Mass dawn raids over EU ‘Mafia links’ More than 40 dawn raids were carried … Continue reading