EU Commission Sets Poor Corruption Example
The European Union Commission demonstrated this month that developing nations hardly have a monopoly on official corruption that rises to the top of political systems.
At the November 19 meeting of the EU Commission President José Manuel Barroso shamefully threatened UK Independence Party’s Nigel Farage with “legal consequences” for daring to reveal the shady past of EU Commission Vice-President Jacques Barrot.
Barrot, it turned out, received a suspended prison sentence for his role in a political fund raising scandal in France. Barrot was later given amnesty by the president of France. Under French law, the media there was barred from mentioning the conviction or suspended prison sentence.
The resulting furor at that revelation forced Barroso to back off his threat of “legal consequences” but that it was made at all in response to a corruption accusation is yet more fuel for the fire of well-founded Euro-skeptics.
Moreover, the revelation about Barrot’s past apparently wasn’t enough to force his resignation. Barroso, in fact, has taken to telling European newspapers that he has 100 percent confidence in the convicted criminal, Barrot.
Is this the EU or Zimbabwe? I’m sure developing nations can’t wait to hear Europeans lecture them about corruption after such a blatant failure to deal with official corruption in their own corner of the world.
The EU should be ashamed of itself.
Source:
New furore shakes EU Commission. The BBC, November 22, 2004.
Barrot given reprieve by European Parliament Socialists. EU Observer, November 23, 2004.
Euro team are liars and crooks, says Ukip. Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, Daily Telegraph, November 19, 2004.
The EU Commission Sets Poor Corruption Example by Brian Carnell, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License.
No related posts.
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
Tags: Uncategorized