THE TAWDRINESS OF EUROPEAN POLITICIANS is  surveyed in  a piece by Mr.
Stuttaford in today's National Review    that talks about
 -   German foreign minister Joschka Fischer's terrorist links
 
-  Former French prime minister Lionel Jospin's covert Communism
-  Former French president and current EU constitution writer Giscard D'Estaing's
acceptance of diamonds from the cannibal emperor he supported
-  Soon-to-be  chief of the European Central Bank   Jean-Claude Trichet's recent trial
(but acquittal) for approving false accounts at Credit Lyonnais
-  Former French prime minister Edith Cresson's  current  criminal charges of  forgery
and conflict of interest as an EU politician
 
-  Former British opposition leader  Neil Kinnock's   and former Luxemburg prime
minister  Jacques Santer's  resignations as   EU Commissioners (along with the entire
rest of the Commission) after a report was published of widespread corruption,
 
-  French President Chirac's   $2,000,000 reimbursement for food and drink expenses
while mayor of Paris.
 
The article doesn't discuss every example of corruption; it goes light on Italy, and
wasn't there some big-time German corruption in the past few years? But it takes us up-
to-date on the squelching of efforts by some bureaucrat-auditors to expose corruption in
the EU Commission.
  [  
http://php.indiana.edu/~erasmuse/w/03.07.22b.htm ]          
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http://php.indiana.edu/~erasmuse/w/0.rasmusen.htm.