EU: The Corrupted Commission

"We can no longer control our own economy. We have given over decisions...to unelected, un-accountable people who do not have to justify the decisions they make. That is not democracy"
Patricia McKenna, Member of the European Parliament, Ireland

Why is the European Union no role model for developing countries?

The European Union was founded in 1957 as the European Economic Community. It then became the EC (European Community) and in 1993 the EU (European Union). From its very inception it has been haunted by corruption scandals and serious concerns about its undemocratic and unaccountable nature. The root problem within its structure lies in the European Commission which effectively drafts all laws for now 400 million people without any transparency checks in place. Whatever comes to law in the European Union has been drafted under the supervision of one of the 20 “Commissioners”. These are not elected in a democratic process, but in a completely nebulous process of announcement by EU member states and under the heavy influence of the financial investment industry and their connected corporations.
More...

Documentation on the Bolkestein-Scandal

It is most remarkable that EU-commissioner Frits Bolkestein tried to persuade Dutch minister Els Borst to have a cholesterol-lowering pharmaceutical product taken into the services covered by the Dutch medical insurance-companies. Mr. Bolkestein is also working for the pharmaceutical giant Merck, Sharp & Dome, that produces the cholesterol-lowering drug Cozaar. Normally, these kinds of scandals tend to vanish in a sort of hush-hush policy. But about this scandal there has been published several articles in Dutch newspapers and on Dutch websites. A short impression.
More...

Again large fraud and corruption scandals in Brusseles

New threat by official who told of EU fraud
THE European Commission faces a corruption scandal after a leading whistleblower threatened a showdown by the weekend unless action is taken to root out fraud in Brussels.
More...

Yet More Fraud And Corruption In Brussels

Commissioner for Environmental Protection is director of a nuclear business
European Voice: March 14, 2002
The European Commission is investigating the ex-environment director-general Jim Currie over a possible conflict of interests, after he accepted a directorship with British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL) within four months of leaving his job in Brussels.
More...

Whisper who dares
The Daily Telegraph: February 8, 2002
The European Commission seems to regard criticism of itself and its procedures as an alarming impertinence. When its own chief accountant, Marta Andreasen, refused to sign off its annual accounts for 2001 on the grounds that she had found parts of its budget management process to be "out of control", she was suspended from her post and exposed to a whispering campaign that impugned her competence and her character.
More...

EU scandals are like the US's — but they're in the public sector
The Daily Telegraph: February 8, 2002
You might think that accounting scandals are as American as ten-gallon hats and cowboy boots but the truth is they take place on this side of the Atlantic too. Only instead of being in the private sector, they are in the public sector. Perhaps Europe should be nicknamed Enrope.
More...

EU accused of budget cover-up
The Daily Telegraph: February 8, 2002
Neil Kinnock's crusade to clean up the European Commission was thrown into question yesterday by claims that he tried to suppress damning findings by its former chief accountant.
More...

Moment the facade starts to crumble
The Daily Telegraph: February 8, 2002
Little has changed since charges of fraud, mass resignations and Kinnock's promise of radical reform, writes Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in Brussels
More...

I'm not a politician — just a bean-counter, says Andreasen
The Daily Telegraph: February 8, 2002
Like many people at the European Commission, Marta Andreasen, the latest person to blow the whistle on her suspicions of lax accountancy practices, has an immaculate tan.
More...