How the EU always gets away with it
From fraud to nepotism to revolving doors between the public sector and industry, the stench of impunity is pervasive.
In the swish hotel conference rooms and cafés of the Brussels EU quarter, the indignation was palpable: Why had poor Henrik been singled out?
Henrik Hololei, a gregarious Estonian who had reached the heights of director-general in the EU’s civil service, had been caught accepting freebies from the government of Qatar while his department was negotiating a lucrative aviation deal ― with, ever so coincidentally, Qatar.
It was fine, the European Commission said when the matter came to light in 2023: All his free flights had been signed off by a senior person in the department. Trouble was, the senior person in the department was Hololei.
The whole piece is well worth reading as a reminder that this is the festering mess that Keir Starmer is clearly intent on bowing the knee to.
“The EU institutions’ ethical insouciance and political unaccountability has produced a culture of impunity that not only harms EU citizens’ trust in democratic institutions, but also lends itself to be weaponized by anti-EU politicians both within and outside of the Union,” said Alberto Alemanno, a professor of EU law at HEC Paris, and founder of the Good Lobby NGO.
While national governments live and die at the ballot box ― meaning that corruption and a lack of accountability often come back to bite them ― the EU’s world is murkier and more opaque.
While national governments live and die at the ballot box ― meaning that corruption and a lack of accountability often come back to bite them ― the EU’s world is murkier and more opaque.
3 comments:
Yes, there's nothing surprising here. A certain type of devious criminal will tend to seek out bureaucratic positions. The irony here is that bureacracies are meant to root out corruption by making decisions subject to common rules. But they have become so complicated that people minded to make money can easily hide their tracks.
Almost all the professional middle class people I've met and associated with have been very pro the EU. It's a matter of mystery and puzzlement to me why they cannot see the objections to it that have been outlined here? Are they stupid, blinkered, unanalytical? Seeing as many of them know as little about the EU as they do about 'climate change', I think it's much more about the comfort of middle class groupthink, than any rational appraisal on their part.
Sam - and the overall effect is that bureaucracies are trending towards crooked oligarchies which can't be reformed.
Tammly - yes, within the professional middle classes, the comfort of groupthink does censor analytical ability. If we go by what we observe, then it is stupidity, but it often pays to be selectively stupid.
Post a Comment