EU 🇪🇺 the biggest bribery scandal in the history of the EU’s institutions,.

Mollygo

Katie59, not the ex Italian PM surely. When would he have had time?

Yes he was another Liz Truss, desperate days in politics

Katie59, not the ex Italian PM surely. When would he have had time?

Ouf...

I don’t understand why we are surprised that Greek and Italian polititians are open to bribes, they are not usually stupid enough to get caught piles of cash in Brussels was bound to get noticed.
Bribes are a way of life in many countries, some are bound to be tempted.

The UK government has commenced legal action to recover more than £100m from the company that was awarded two large PPE contracts after the Conservative peer Michelle Mone recommended it to ministers.

Just to remind some of you that the EU is a much larger organisation and the monies defrauded would appear to be a drop in the ocean per its total population compared with that if the UK.

Urmstongran

Have you read about this? There’s not been much on the tv news.

But today, in the Telegraph, I thought this was quite shocking.

“Police seizures of suitcases stuffed full of cash are usually the result of crackdowns on crime gangs or drug lords. This time, though, the brick-like wads of €50 notes were found not by the vice squad, but by detectives investigating allegations of corruption in the European Parliament.

Brussels has been gripped this week by stories of an international bribery ring said to involve Qatar, Morocco and influential EU figures. Colossal sums of money have been found in the homes of some of the alleged recipients: €600,000 (£523,000) in bank notes at the home of an Italian politician, €150,000 tucked into the luxury luggage of a Greek socialist MEP, and hundreds of thousands more in the possession of her father. In all, more than €1.5 million has been seized in raids on 19 locations in the Belgian capital and in Italy, some of which were in the Parliament itself.

The investigation centres on claims that Qatar tried to buy influence in order to help secure an “open skies” deal that would give its airlines unfettered access to EU markets and airspace. It is, without question, the biggest bribery scandal in the history of the EU’s institutions, and it could well get much worse, with reports that up to 60 MEPs could be dragged into it. Four people, including Eva Kaili, a Greek MEP who was until this week a vice-president of the Parliament, have so far been charged with corruption, with the prospect of high-profile court cases to come.”

Fully agree UG it's dreadful. But we might learn from the reaction of the both the EP and the Belgian police: these people will face criminal charges. When Owen Paterson was accused of lobbying in return for payment the Tories just tried to change the rules.

This is the ranking of the 12 least corrupt countries as of 2021. It also shows average annual income. The UK is no 11 and has the second lowest average income.

1Denmark 68,110 $
1Finland 53,660 $
1New Zealand 45,340 $
4Norway 84,090 $
4Singapore 64,010 $
4Sweden 58,890 $
7Switzerland 90,360 $
9Luxembourg 81,110 $
10Germany 51,040 $
11United Kingdom 45,380 $
12Hong Kong 54,450 $

www.worlddata.info/corruption.php

Good that this is coming out in the ope and is being dealt with. Where is Baroness Mone's arrest warrant???

Urmstongran

Well obviously we have plenty of corruption (all stripes) in our own political circus. I’m just grateful we’re not part of the Brussels corruption squad as well.

Funny how others can point out our governments failings instead of the EUs and no- one shouts “ooh look a squirrel!” to them.

Which is why I illustrated what has gone on in France but it seemed to be dismissed by you as irrelevant. At least in Europe there is a visible effort

MazieD
The point of that post was to show that they appointed a crook to be head of the eu.

Witzend
I was living in Bulgaria when they joined the eu. I lived very close to a farming co- operative and had 2 Bulgarian friends who farmed there.
They received 20 million euros. Not one cent was spent on that co-operative. For many it was like all their birthdays and Christmases had come at once.
When the eu officials arrived to ask where the money had gone, nobody knew. And that’s all they kept saying, I don’t know.
When you live in a country where the most senior judge is driving around in a stolen car, you know somethings amiss. 😱

Mark Thatcher made million from an arms deal with Saudi Arabia signed by his mother in 1985. There are several other allegations of bribery involving him, including Cementation in Oman.

Here's a link to that story from 2015

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/oct/05/mark-thatcher-business-dealings-leave-uk-margaret-thatcher-biography

TBH I don’t know why anyone’s really surprised.

Well before he retired dh was involved in the preparation of contracts for major infrastructure projects in relatively new EU countries. Instead of EU money being dished out strictly according to tendered, necessary costs, vast sums were instead sloshed out ad lib, much of which (it was widely known by everyone involved) found its way into sundry corrupt pockets.

Before anyone asks or wonders, I did vote Remain, albeit holding my nose to some extent, largely because of such practices.

😂😂😂😂

I wondered how you were going to get the Royal Family into this thread, Grany 🤣

Charles from a report in the Sunday Times that he accepted €3m in cash from a Qatari politician.

Campaign group Republic will be writing to Prince Charles, the government, MPs and the Charity Commission, calling on all relevant authorities to investigate and disclose the nature of Charles's financial dealings with Sheikh Hammad.

Speaking for Republic today, Graham Smith said:

"This story is shocking. Prince Charles met Sheikh Hamad in private, with no officials present and with no disclosure of the meeting in the court circular."

"The Sheikh then made three payments directly and personally to Prince Charles, totalling €3m, which Charles gave to a charity he set up to pursue his pet projects and help run one of his estates"

"Sheikh Hamad faces serious accusations over human rights and has significant financial and other interests here in the UK."

"Given that Prince Charles has direct access to the British prime minister and all government ministers, as well as all cabinet papers, this raises serious ethical questions about what the sheikh expected in return"

"Was he able to use Charles as a channel for influencing the UK government or to gain inside knowledge of government business?

"This also adds to the serious questions about Prince Charles's judgement, following from other accusations of cash-for-access and cash-for-honours."

"The Prince of Wales’s Charitable Fund also needs to answer questions about its accepting of this money and its independence from Charles."

Have the police properly investigated this if not why not?

PS Lord Templeman's contribution is in Hansard at hansard.parliament.uk/Lords/1986-11-25/debates/ce846a8a-612e-4708-bb1f-b862153f2596/PrivilegesAndImmunitiesOfMepsEccReport
if you care to read the full facts at length before jumping to conclusions about excessive privilege.

Rees-Mogg rails at the immunity privilege of MEPs but he fails to explain how it came about. Lord Templeman commented on this in the H of L some time ago. In the UK MPs have had no immunity from arrest on criminal charges for over 800 years whereas MEPs have such immunity throughout the EU unless it is waived. The underlying reason is that the European Parliament was concerned that MEPs could be threatened or detained when they travelled in the various countries of the EU through misuse of the criminal law: the EP was aware of the history of such politically inspired oppression in Europe. But, unlike the House of Commons which has the power to commit the perpetrators of such misuse for contempt, the EP has no powers to apply sanctions in cases of this kind. Therefore the EP required immunity for its MEPs (with the proviso it can be waived) as the only means of preventing such oppression. I think that is a fair summary in brief.

That is a very old fact, MerylStreep that most people knew about years ago. Like, when it was reported in2014.

Can't you do better than that?

DaisyAnne
Here’s a Fact.

www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/10/juncker-amazon-luxembourg-eased-tax-expert-comfort.

Then when he was commissioner he tried to block tax reform.
Would you like a link to that Fact

Oreo

MerylStreep

I’ve been watching this for about a week or more.
She’s just one who has been caught. Others are far more clever.

Bet it’s been going on for years, probably the tip of the iceberg.
The EU gravy train has loads of opportunities for corruption.

No personal bias there then

A few facts would at least make it seem as if you aren't supporting a baseless faith in an extreme ideology.

Glad to see most people on here have got the measure of Rees-Mogg!

The Greek MEP is Kaili Ug. She was sacked immediately.

Sorry, meant to show this was a reply to Grow stuff querying whereabouts of Mone.