EU Bribery Scandal

I wasn't aware the EU had a "government".

It’s all Greek to me

What's wrong with having €630,000 in cash in your apartment?

Is that all they have?

Well there are a couple of others I can think of who have gone to extraordinary efforts to support Russia in this time of it's great need. It might be prudent to extend the scope of the enquiry to encompass MEPs who seem to exert more effort in furthering the interests of non EU countries, than their.

Qatar might have been bribing the vice president of the European Parliament, and possibly others.

It's basically the Qataris trying to buy influence. It's concerning, but not altogether surprising.

The amount involved is very large, but otherwise this is not dissimilar from things we have seen more than once in national parliaments. In fact most national parliaments have a mechanism for MPs to declare the donations, freebies, etc, they get from people hoping to secure their attention or influence, and where there's a scandal it's usually not because a wodge of money was handed over but because the MP concerned failed to declare it.

Was thinking something similar. The arrest and sacking of this politician has happened quickly. (Whether it’s tip of the iceberg stuff of few bad eggs etc all needs to be investigated properly of course)

However if a similar type of bribe/incentive/‘gift’ was made to an Irish politician I would not be at all confident an immediate expulsion/sacking/arrest as appropriate would follow. I do think we have a functional and largely honest parliament and democracy but we also have members of the Dail who have been caught red handed taking large gifts and a very active image rehabilitation ongoing for a former Taoiseach who did the same.

Continental Europe would have a much bigger corruption problem than Ireland, especially in France, Italy, Belgium, Spain, Austria, Germany has significant problems in its Landesbanks, and then there is Eastern Europe and the Med. at a whole different level.

But the vice president of the European Parliament is an MEP of course. If we found out that the Qataris had been bribing Ursula von der Leyen or one of the EU Commissioners, this would be a scandal of a whole different order.

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.

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'.

Classic story hyped as sexy scandal.

Oooh a politician found taking backhander.

Why I never.

Give me a random national newspaper.

Is it?

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.

who has made out that the EU is incorruptible? do you have any idea how stupid that sounds?