The financial crisis demonstrated its black humour when today’s ZDF morning journal praised the conservative Austrian minister of finance Josef Pröll (ÖVP) as the pioneer in demanding a financial transaction tax, a demand that was put forward by the left winged non-governmental organisation ATTAC long ago. Yet the humorous excursion ended promptly, when the vice-chancellor defined the true character of the crisis – it is a “debt crisis”. This inevitably raises the question why the “Ackermann-puppets” in politics do not initiate a fundamental discussion on our monetary system.
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The European Parliament was legitimately proud of its interim success in hindering the ratification of the SWIFT agreement on the transfer of bank data. But the image of the EU institution as a patron of personal data protection changes when it comes to the personal data rights of MEPs’ assistants. According to a procedure which has been in force for a half a year now, the EP administration expects the assistants to answer quite intimate questions. “Have you ever had haemorrhoids?”, “Has one of your family members had a mental disease?”, “Have you ever seen a neurologist, a psychiatrist or a therapist?”, “If yes, please indicate his/her name and address.” The EP medical service even demands: “Please indicate the date of your last menstruation”. This questionnaire is part of the new recruitment procedure of the European Parliament.
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The financial crisis and the changes brought by the Treaty of Lisbon make the business-as-usual-administration centre Brussels sweat. For months now establishing the European External Action Service (EEAS), as foreseen by the Treaty of Lisbon, has been a top priority on the European Union’s to-do list. All in all four documents are currently being put together. The first draft of the document about launching the EEAS has already been presented by the High Representative for Foreign Affairs Catherine Ashton. On Monday its basic principles were approved by the Foreign Ministers of the EU member states. While in the matters of foreign affairs the European Parliament is normally degraded to a “coffee break chat”, it has a full co-decision power on the other three documents: i.e. staff regulation, budget and financial regulation. But Brussels would not be Brussels if the EEAS stood on solid ground, based on transparency and a clear division of competences.
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Every month the staff and Members of the European Parliament shuttle between Brussels and Strasbourg like a “travelling circus”. The annual expenses of this historical symbolism amount to almost 200 million Euros. Because of the ash cloud several MEPs did not travel to Strasbourg this week. They sent numerous e-mails of complaint during the weekend, demanding the cancellation of sessions or the postponement of voting. Although all the European citizens had been aware of this problem for days, the European Parliament did not react, either at the weekend or the days before. The President of the European Parliament Jerzy Buzek informed the MEPs, as late as Monday night, of the postponement of the voting and the cancellation of the plenary session on Thursday.
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Als die Investmentbank Lehmann Brothers Pleite ging, verloren 25.000 Menschen ihre Arbeit und der weltweite Bankensektor wurde an die Grenze des Machbaren getrieben. Wer wurde zur Verantwortung gezogen? Bankiers, Bankenaufsicht, Politiker? Jedenfalls nicht John Llewellyn. Der damalige Senior Economic Policy Advisor and Managing Director von Lehman Brothers berät nun EU-Kommissionspräsident José Manuel Barroso in volkswirtschaftlichen Fragen – als externer Berater im “Bureau of European Policy Advisors” (BEPA).
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Einmal jährlich kontrolliert der Haushaltskontrollausschuss die Finanzen des EU-Parlaments im Zuge des Entlastungsverfahrens. Die Arbeit des Generalsekretärs und seiner Beamten soll kritisch geprüft werden. Diese Woche fand die Abstimmung im Ausschuss über den Entlastungsberichtsentwurf des grünen EU-Abgeordneten Bart Staes statt. Der Belgier ist heuer Berichterstatter. Doch es zeigte sich wieder einmal, dass es für kritische Kontrolle keine Mehrheit im EU-Parlament gibt. Über 30 kritische Passagen wurden von der rot-schwarzen “Koalition” einfach weg gestimmt. Am Schluss war der Bericht dermaßen unkenntlich, sodass selbst der Berichterstatter sich bei der Endabstimmung enthalten hat. “Mein Baby wurde noch vor der Geburt abgetrieben”, meinte er resignierend.
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One of the central questions in a democracy is who is in the capacity of initiating law. In every EU Member State the national parliament has the right to initiate law. In Belgium, Sweden and Portugal, for instance, every member of parliament can initiate law. The EU Parliament does not possess this right. This is an imbalance that has not been changed even by the Lisbon Treaty. The negotiations over a new framework agreement between the European Commission and the Parliament initiated a new discussion about the initiative law in recent weeks. The impression of true progress is however misleading.
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Ernst Strasser also proves the fact that the Austrian neutrality is not worth anything for many politicians from the Alps. The lobbyist disguised as an EU MEP voted against all the neutrality amendments to the Danjean report on the implementation of the European Security Strategy in the Committee on Foreign Affairs. An amendment that passed by majority vote despite Strassers “no” reads as follows: “The European Parliament stresses that the progress and development of the CSDP must fully respect and not undermine the neutrality and non-alignment of some of the EU Member States.”
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The European Parliament annually donates nearly 3.7 million Euros to 10 foundations that are affiliated with the European political parties. In addition to this the ten European political parties receive 9.9 Million Euros. One of these foundations is the European Liberal Forum, the best-known Austrian member of which is the Liberal Institute. The Liberal Institute appeared in the focus of media attention under the management of the former politician of the Liberal Forum Alexander Zach and due to the involvement of the institute in the scandal of the Strabag contributions. These foundations are rarely a subject of discussion. On January 17, 2009 the Parliament Praesidium gave its blessing to most of the statements of account and final reports of the foundations “without a discussion”
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Tomorrow, on Thursday the body scanners in the European Parliament are undergoing a public inspection in the parking deck P1D in the underground garage of the European Parliament. In 2005 the European Parliament bought 6 body scanners following the recommendation of an “external advisor” and paid 120.995 Euros for each scanner. Three of the scanners were intended for Brussels and three for Strassbourg. Now the “Rapiscann Secure 1000″ are put on sale not having been used even once and are displayed to interested parties. Bids of not less than 65.000 euros per scanner can be submitted until March 1. The public ceremonial opening of the tenders takes place on March 12.
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