https://www.europol.europa.eu/media-press/newsroom/news/cybe...
In every country in Europe people are pissed with their government and hate the police but when its a "Euro" thing it feels much better.
The online narrative may make you think that "Europe" is a dirty word(chat control, cookie banner, regulations, fines etc), but its actually much more pure than any local politics and much much less divisive. The "Euro cops" phrase gives me the feeling of bunch of police officers that are not particularly fun at parties but are definitely not corrupt.
those exist, never met any luckily, guess I hang in positive circles.
Many of the biggest stories about the EU are about or have a sizable aspect of corruption. Chat Control amd Thorn, Ursula von der Leyen and Big Pharma, Ursula von der Leyen and $anything.
Follow the Money is a thriving investigative journalism publication that lives off uncovering corruption in the EU.
https://netzpolitik.org/2022/dude-wheres-my-privacy-how-a-ho...
He was also a huge backer of Brexit.
On social media there's persistent and years long push to paint EU as anti-Business. They are pushing and pushing for de-regulations.
The Pfizergate is another great example of what happens when you have a centralized decision. That scandal only exist because of the Covid, an unprecedented situation where EU has to take quick actions and had to engage with companies directly. The scope of the scandal is also extremely benign compared to what you have in other places, it's essentially a transparency scandal. No one is even seriously accusing her of abuse of her position for personal enrichment when in a normal country this type of scandal is often about giving the contract to a relative of theirs or an election campaign donor.
Once the Ukraine war is over, I also expect to see other scandals to be unearthed as they were rushed to acquire weapons fast.
There are scandals like Qatar paying an MPs to push their agenda, but other than that EU is so much less corrupt than anything the local governments have. Those involved in the Qatar scandal went to prison, how many local politicians you have who go to prison for anything other than political reasons?
Have you noticed what has been happening in US since February for example? That one is extreme but all over EU the local governments have some sort of these scams and dealings. In countries like US all you have to do is to buy president's crypto coins or make a donation for his election campaigns. In EU, you simply can't do anything of this sort. That's why those who want influence actually pay social media influencers to push an agenda and this is considerably more expensive and hard compared to just establishing a relationship and paying up the president.
Many of EU's weaknesses are also it's strength since having full control and being able to move fast comes with its risks.
That's why across the EU the trust in EU and support for EU is way higher than any local governments. The worst is over %50 in favor of EU, when most of the governments consider themselves lucky if they are in the %30s.
Is it though?
> There is much fake news published about me, but let me make clear that I have never uttered those words
https://pressgazette.co.uk/publishers/nationals/rupert-murdo...
I buy the rest of your comment that EU may be better than local govts.
> notorious for rich people to lobby
I don't know about rich people, but companies seem to have a lot of success in doing so.
> Murdoch backer of Brexit
This is not evidence that the EU is hard to lobby. People across the political spectrum can be anti-EU: Corbyn, who's as left and as anti-corruption as they come, was a Leaver (and a UK with Corbyn as PM would have arguably been better off outside the EU, but I digress).
> Ursula, scandal only about transparency and not personal enrichment
I don't know how awarding billions of public funds in contracts and then deleting all messages, something she's done before while working for the German gov, is "not that bad" and not about personal enrichment, but about her great care for efficiency and the European pop...
> Those involved in the Qatar scandal went to prison, how many local politicians you have who go to prison for anything other than political reasons?
You're cherry-picking, powerful EU officials are as immune to justice as anywhere else, and plenty of examples exist in Member States of people going to prison for corruption. The former president of France just started his prison sentence, you might have heard. Those cases are the exceptions that prove the rule.
> Have you noticed what has been happening in US since February for example?
Few countries would look good on corruption if you compare them to "What has been happening in the US", FULL STOP. That the EU is not as far gone as the US has been for decades (thank fuck) is, again, no evidence of anything.
I invite you to peruse ftm.eu, as I'm on my phone: look at the criticism of OLAF's selective investigations, the watchdogs lacking any independence and finding that everything's just dandy with EU officials, the revolving doors across so many industries, the bribes and gifts, the insider trading, employment of family members, mismanagement of funds, etc. etc. etc.
One article that I enjoyed is this:
Edited to address more of your points.
The corruption in EU is indeed happening through local governments(EU allocates money for projects, local governments who actually end up getting the money to execute these projects siphon that to their cronies or to spice up the local economies), as per this article and the articles in ftm.eu
This is one article that says the European Commission is not aware of 90% of EU fraud cases: at this scale, this can't be brushed off as being the fault of member states.
> and the articles in ftm.eu
No. That is not what FTM investigations show. At all.
Since EU doesn't directly deal with anything, there's not much opportunity for corruption. It's almost always down the pipeline.
Yes, the rich are lobbying the EU hard. /s
> We all know what to do, but we don't know how to get re-elected once we have done it.
Being a step removed from local politics means they can do stuff without the immediate fear they're all kicked out, but the other downside of people not really caring who they elect is it's relatively easy to be elected on a "We hate the EU" line. It's a weird place.
Modern US variant: we will say whatever we must to amass donations to pay for the election campaign, but you'd be a fool to bet on our doing what we should once elected.
https://www.reddit.com/r/PropagandaPosters/comments/x0vicd/v...
It was intended as just an example of what one could do with all that delicious tax money.
Actually, it's probably legal in the USA, but completely illegal in the EU where the Digital Services Act regulation very specifically says that a mere conduit of data transmissions cannot be held liable for data transmissions passing through it which it didn't originate. I only know anything about the law in Germany (and I am not a lawyer) so let's pretend this happened in Germany - then the business operator - presuming that they're running a relay business and not spammers themselves - would win back all the money this police action deprived them of, including lost revenue, equipment costs, lawyer fees, and repairs for any damages incurred during the raid. Their cellphone provider is probably allowed to terminate their contract however, and could sue them if they had any meaningful damages. The civil court system here is very algorithmic as far as I'm aware: if(you broke the law) you.transfer(victim, victim.money_if_you_hadnt_broken_the_law - victim.money);
There just isn't a better place to live (having lived in other places like the UK, US and CH, and visited many countries).
For example, when I meet European researchers, each has some things to bitch about their own governments, but we all agree the unity of the EU is very valuable, and that we are very grateful for what it has given us (democratic stability, freedom of movement, a vision for living together respecting and celebrating our cultural differences yet sharing key values).
In the media, in particularly in the UK, people had not much good to say about the "European beaurocrats". In contrast, I work with some very committed officers in Brussels that administer the Horizon Europe research programme, and they are doing a job as well as possible given legal and political constraints. How they work is too little known by the general public, which makes the EU bashing easy but not quite fair.
Can you maybe give some context on the issues he's talking about?
Objectively false [1]. Europe is pissed at government (~30% approval) and love the police (70% approval). Hating on police is an US thing exclusively.
But sure, hating the police is an exaggeration. Still, I think it’s obvious that its for illustrative purposes and not a declaration. Just like everybody never means every single person no exceptions when talking about general situations. It’s like when you say “everyone knows that the flat earth theory is BS”. Yes it’s not everybody and your mileage may vary depending on the location.
A sense of unity builds optimism, especially in very troubled times.