Private Eye
Financial ignorance, plain dishonesty and disregard for human
rights ! That’s the EU for you.
xxxxxxxxxx cs
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PRIVATE EYE 1221 17-30.10.08
rights ! That’s the EU for you.
xxxxxxxxxx cs
===================
PRIVATE EYE 1221 17-30.10.08
Brussels Sprouts
EU leaders appear to be turning a blind eye to their own errors of
financial judgement while calling for tighter controls and
accountability in the financial market
In particular the EU “capital adequacy directive” of 14 June 2006 has
been blamed by various financial experts for the current crisis in EU
banking. The directive which was eagerly adopted into law by the UK
[the important word there is “eagerly” for they had to do it
anyway !!! -cs] and other member states , implemented what was known
the Basel II Accord . This aimed to set out the minimum amount of
capital that banks in the EU, the US and Japan should hold and what
information they should reveal about their financial liabilities. But
critics have described it as a bureaucratic nightmare which can make
banks appear insolvent and so prevent them from lending to one
another, causing the inter-bank markets to size up.
Professor Peter Spencer, of the Ernst & Young Item Club, commented
last year “If these funding routes are not reopened . . it will make
1929 look like a walk in the park.’ Another expert, Professor Tim
Congdon of Lombard Street Research, described the Basel rules as
‘hocus pocus’ . Nevertheless the European Commission is now calling
for a ‘College of Supervisors’ for banking groups ignoring the root
of the problem.
While the European Commission and parliament call for more
regulation, both remain strangely silent about their own abysmal
accounts which the Court of Auditors has refused to approve for the
14th year running.
European Commissioner for audit, Siim Kallas told MEPs last month
that an astonishing 11 percent of repayments to member states should
not have been made. In Britain, meanwhile, the treasury failed to
certify the accounts for the UK’s ‘gross expenditure’ on EU projects
of £4.9bn. It said the EU would be able to sort it all out and
taxpayers would just pay the difference. So that’s all right then.
The EU auditors’ report, due to be published on 10 November,
criticised 17 areas in which there were “real and unquestioned
weaknesses” . These included rural development and structural
funds, but the €12.4bn common agricultural policy was ‘particularly
prone to error’.
How did the European parliament respond? It chose the same day to
announce the launch of its €40m TV Europarl propaganda service which
it hope will ‘improve communications with the general public.’ Will
it solve the problem of the vanishing YouTube video of MEPs trying
to sign up for their daily allowances at 7 am ready to leave with
packed suitcases, filmed by Austrian MEP Hans-Peter Martin? Don’t
bank on it.
Communication with the European public might improve of course if
MEPs did not keep voting for undemocratic moves that remove people’s
basic legal rights.
They did so again last month with a fast track extradition treaty
that allows trials to go ahead in absentia and without proper
evidence thanks to the European Arrest Warrant (EAW).
Despite warnings from the German Federal Bar Association and the
European Criminal Bar Association. MEPs voted by 609 votes to 60 (14
abstentions) to approve the law before it goes to the council of
ministers. Fair Trials Abroad and Liberty say it is a violation of
basic rights and may challenge it in the European court of human rights.
The latest victim of the EAW is 19 year old British student Andrew
Symeon, who faces extradition to Greece on manslaughter charges.
This is despite the lack of evidence against Mr Symeon and statements
from witnesses that his name was only obtained after police assaulted
them and forced them to sign false statements in Greek without access
to a lawyer or consular representative.
When Mr Symeon appeared before Westminster magistrates last month,
the court heard of a catalogue of abuses of human rights by Greek
police and abuse of ‘due process’ by Greek magistrates, including
failure to issue a summons and the delay of almost a year before
issuing a warrant. Judge Purdy said “The European Arrest Warrant
scheme is still in its infancy and depends on respecting the rule of
law . . Laganas police are not respecting the rule of law and the
respondent should not be sacrificed on the altar of EU harmony.”
If Mr Symeon is extradited he could remain in a Greek prison for 18
months without charge or trial, even though the ‘investigation’ into
his case took one day and was described by his defence counsel, John
Jones, as a “whitewash” .
Judge Purdy will give his decision at the end of the month.
=======
financial judgement while calling for tighter controls and
accountability in the financial market
In particular the EU “capital adequacy directive” of 14 June 2006 has
been blamed by various financial experts for the current crisis in EU
banking. The directive which was eagerly adopted into law by the UK
[the important word there is “eagerly” for they had to do it
anyway !!! -cs] and other member states , implemented what was known
the Basel II Accord . This aimed to set out the minimum amount of
capital that banks in the EU, the US and Japan should hold and what
information they should reveal about their financial liabilities. But
critics have described it as a bureaucratic nightmare which can make
banks appear insolvent and so prevent them from lending to one
another, causing the inter-bank markets to size up.
Professor Peter Spencer, of the Ernst & Young Item Club, commented
last year “If these funding routes are not reopened . . it will make
1929 look like a walk in the park.’ Another expert, Professor Tim
Congdon of Lombard Street Research, described the Basel rules as
‘hocus pocus’ . Nevertheless the European Commission is now calling
for a ‘College of Supervisors’ for banking groups ignoring the root
of the problem.
While the European Commission and parliament call for more
regulation, both remain strangely silent about their own abysmal
accounts which the Court of Auditors has refused to approve for the
14th year running.
European Commissioner for audit, Siim Kallas told MEPs last month
that an astonishing 11 percent of repayments to member states should
not have been made. In Britain, meanwhile, the treasury failed to
certify the accounts for the UK’s ‘gross expenditure’ on EU projects
of £4.9bn. It said the EU would be able to sort it all out and
taxpayers would just pay the difference. So that’s all right then.
The EU auditors’ report, due to be published on 10 November,
criticised 17 areas in which there were “real and unquestioned
weaknesses” . These included rural development and structural
funds, but the €12.4bn common agricultural policy was ‘particularly
prone to error’.
How did the European parliament respond? It chose the same day to
announce the launch of its €40m TV Europarl propaganda service which
it hope will ‘improve communications with the general public.’ Will
it solve the problem of the vanishing YouTube video of MEPs trying
to sign up for their daily allowances at 7 am ready to leave with
packed suitcases, filmed by Austrian MEP Hans-Peter Martin? Don’t
bank on it.
Communication with the European public might improve of course if
MEPs did not keep voting for undemocratic moves that remove people’s
basic legal rights.
They did so again last month with a fast track extradition treaty
that allows trials to go ahead in absentia and without proper
evidence thanks to the European Arrest Warrant (EAW).
Despite warnings from the German Federal Bar Association and the
European Criminal Bar Association. MEPs voted by 609 votes to 60 (14
abstentions) to approve the law before it goes to the council of
ministers. Fair Trials Abroad and Liberty say it is a violation of
basic rights and may challenge it in the European court of human rights.
The latest victim of the EAW is 19 year old British student Andrew
Symeon, who faces extradition to Greece on manslaughter charges.
This is despite the lack of evidence against Mr Symeon and statements
from witnesses that his name was only obtained after police assaulted
them and forced them to sign false statements in Greek without access
to a lawyer or consular representative.
When Mr Symeon appeared before Westminster magistrates last month,
the court heard of a catalogue of abuses of human rights by Greek
police and abuse of ‘due process’ by Greek magistrates, including
failure to issue a summons and the delay of almost a year before
issuing a warrant. Judge Purdy said “The European Arrest Warrant
scheme is still in its infancy and depends on respecting the rule of
law . . Laganas police are not respecting the rule of law and the
respondent should not be sacrificed on the altar of EU harmony.”
If Mr Symeon is extradited he could remain in a Greek prison for 18
months without charge or trial, even though the ‘investigation’ into
his case took one day and was described by his defence counsel, John
Jones, as a “whitewash” .
Judge Purdy will give his decision at the end of the month.
=======
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