The EU Commission must go
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The mass resignation of the EU Commissioners was a victory for those
who want to see more democracy and accountability in EU institutions.
However it is only the first step
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``It is becoming difficult to find anyone who has even the slightest
sense of responsibility''. This was the judgement of the so called
`High Committee' investigating the fraud, mismanagement and nepotism
perpetrated by the EU Commission.
The conclusions of the committee merely rubber stamped the judgement
made last November by the EU's Court of Audit and the EU Commission's
own Internal Anti Fraud Unit. The judgement lead last week to the
mass resignation of the EU's 20 Commissioners including the Irish
commissioner Padraig Flynn.
Nothing though has really changed at the EU Commission. The
commissioners themselves are continuing to work in a caretaker
capacity while the governments of EU member states pick new
commissioners.
The investigating committee's 144 page report found that fraud at the
level of the commissioners themselves had been let pass unnoticed.
The committee concluded that the claims by the commissioners that
they were unaware of the fraud perpetrated meant that they had no
real control over the administration they were paid to be in charge
of.
They found that one of the French Commissioners Edith Cresson had
been guilty of favouritism. The Portuguese commissioner Joao Pinheiro
was found to have been guilty of nepotism. The Regional Policy
Commissioner Monika Wulf-Mathies who accused the Dublin Government of
subsidy shopping last year was found to have used inappropriate
procedures to recruit staff to her office.
Now the race is on to see who will get the well paid jobs going at
the Commission. Commissioners take home over £140,000 tax free as
well as vast range of expenses, plush offices and staff at their
disposal.
Already the media have outlined the front runners and the approach to
appointing a new commission is being viewed as an interesting
political horse race. Former Italian Prime minister Romano Prodi has
been nominated as President of the Commission but that still leaves
19 other jobs up for grabs.
It is interesting to note that despite the huge evidence showing
fraud and mismanagement at the Commission little effort has been made
by the EU member states to think again about the role the commission
plays within the EU.
The EU Commission is in reality the 16th state within the EU. It
controls an annual budget that far exceeds the resources of many EU
states. It is run by unelected bureaucrats who are formulating policy
and implementing decisions without real democratic control over their
work. The High Committee's report shows that when this work went
wrong none of the commissioners were prepared to take responsibility
for their actions.
The mass resignation of the EU Commissioners was a victory for those
who want to see more democracy and accountability in EU institutions.
However it is only the first step. Much more needs to be done to
ensure that the Commission is reformed and it's powers transferred
back to the EU Parliament and the EU member states. The next step
must be to dismantle the Commission now.
`Tesco must pay money back' - Crowe
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We need to know how Tesco plan to give back the money
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``Are Tesco guilty of creative accounting or daylight robbery'' was the
question asked by Sinn Féin's Dublin candidate for the EU elections
Seán Crowe.
Seán Crowe was responding to the disclosures by the Retail Grocery
Dairy and Allied Trades Association (RGDATA) that the Tesco
supermarket chain had been overcharging customers in six Dublin and
Wicklow stores. RGDATA's survey found that shoppers were being
overcharged by an average of 3% of their shopping bill.
It amounts to £33.3 million of Tesco's annual turnover in Ireland and
is costing each customer an average of £4.50 a week. Tesco have
claimed that in normal circumstances the odds of being overcharged
are 100,000 to 1. They claimed that the errors arose because of their
transition to new checkout systems.
These new systems which are used in retail stores across Ireland put
the customer at a disadvantage as the price of a good is no longer on
the product. This makes it difficult for a consumer to check whether
they have been overcharged or not.
Crowe said, ``The Gardai and the Director of Consumer Affairs should
immediately begin investigating this latest consumer scandal. It is
not good enough that Tesco undertake an in-house check of their
pricing system.
``A number of months ago the customers of National Irish Bank also
experienced this unique Irish consumer phenomena. The RGDATA survey
has uncovered another mysterious black hole which leads directly to
the profits of another multi-national company.
``Tesco's customers are quite rightly outraged at today's discovery.
They have been systematically and fraudulently overcharged for their
shopping. We need to know how Tesco plan to give back the money taken
from their considerably poorer customers.''
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