Britannia Radio

This is a terrible tale of total disregard for all the civilised 
standards we are supposed to find throughout the EU.  The fact that 
they promised to behave to get into the EU and promptly went back on 
their word later says it all .

See also my earlier " Fraud capital of the EU ?  Brussels or 
Bulgaria?"  of 17/11-cs]

We have to realise that all the countries which fell under Communist 
control have a potential corruption problem especially those that 
were autocracies before the war.  The Baltic states, Poland, and the 
Czech republic are notable exceptions but most of the rest have ex-
Communists in very high places.  Communism was such an evil creed 
that it destroyed the very basis of civilisation.

xxxxxxxxxxxxx cs
=========================
EU OBSERVER   14.11.08
EU not tackling corruption in east, say justice experts
VALENTINA POP

  BRUSSELS - The EU should use the most of its pre-accession leverage 
in pushing countries to reform and deliver results in the fight 
against corruption and organised crime before they join the club, not 
to repeat the experience of Romania and Bulgaria, who are still 
struggling with these issues two years after accession, a panel of 
European justice experts told a conference in the European Parliament.

EU member states Romania and Bulgaria have more in common with 
candidate countries such as Croatia and other potential candidates in 
the western Balkans than just a shared Communist past, said a range 
of jurists and commentators brought together under at the 
International Leaders' Summit, a talk-fest organised by conservative 
US and European think-tanks, including the Cato Institute and the 
Heritage Foundation.

The speakers said that much of the east is also afflicted by 
"widespread corruption", "organised crime", conflicts of interests 
and unjustifiable wealth of senior officials, lack of political 
accountability and a culture of impunity in public administration.

The list of criticisms was long, but, they declared, the EU seems ill 
equipped to do something about it.
"There are clear regional characteristics that appear across eastern 
Europe and the risk is that the lessons we learn in one country as it 
develops are not transferred to the next country," British prosecutor 
Rupert Vining said.
"We repeatedly see difficulties around party finances," he continued. 
"We also see the issue of possession of unexplained wealth by senior 
public figures."

Mr Vining worked as an expert on combating corruption in "peer 
review" missions on behalf of the European Commission to assess the 
situation in Romania and Bulgaria during their accession process, as 
well as in the now candidate country Croatia and potential candidate 
Montenegro.

He told the audience that he had thought before he went that it would 
be difficult to explain to the people in the region what unjustified 
assets meant and how they could be dealt with.
"But instead, I had no difficulty at all, because in each country I 
worked, people could immediately think of examples of who had what 
and how they couldn't possibly afford it on the ?300 to ?600 salary 
they were earning per month," Mr Vining said.

The British prosecutor stressed that the EU does not have unified 
rules and procedures on issues such as party financing. Still, that 
was no reason not to reform and impose as much transparency as 
possible, he said, because there was a "new era now, and people in 
the EU are getting tired of accession candidates who don't apply the 
appropriate standards and then backslide when they join the EU."

At the same time, Mr Vining argued that it was not realistic to 
believe that accession candidate countries can "fry the big fish", or 
deliver convictions in complex cases of high-level corruption in the 
very short time frame ahead of accession, especially since the people 
concerned are in power or connected to high-ranking officials.

Monica Macovei, a former Romanian justice minister acclaimed by the 
European Commission and the European Parliament for her reforms on 
the eve of EU accession, also stressed the difficulties of "fighting 
political corruption in a country where corrupt politicians have the 
power to change laws and adopt measures to protect 
themselves."  [THIS is not just in Eastern Europe. Chirac and 
Berlusconi did this! -cs]

The former minister, a member of no political party and fired just 
four months after accession during a cabinet reshuffle, said that 
after Romania joined the EU, the politicians started to "undo" the 
reforms started only a couple of years before.

Ms Macovei said the pre-accession period was the only time the EU had 
enough leverage to push for actual reforms and obtain first results.
Yet a Croatian panelist, Natasha Srdoc from the pro-free-market 
Adriatic Institute of Public Policy, denounced the "very soft report" 
published by the European Commission earlier this month on the 
progress of her country.
She criticised the perspective of concluding negotiations by the end 
of 2009 - a schedule suggested by enlargement commissioner Olli Rehn, 
and denounced the recent contract killings of critical journalists, 
and the "widespread corruption" noted in the commission report.

She also warned of the strength of organised crime in the country, 
saying there was a "much stronger underground network than in Serbia, 
[and this] includes the intelligence services."

"There is not enough pressure now to reform before accession to the 
EU and NATO. Once a country is in the EU, the chances for reforms are 
lost," Ms Srdoc said, demanding "international monitoring" of 
Croatia, as the authorities were, in her view, incapable of dealing 
with these challenges.