Free Republic

A reporter from TVN told AFP, “We are in shock. In no way, under any form, never have we received any threats – aimed at her or the television.” But that assertion was contradicted by Asen Yordanov, the owner of the investigative website, bivol.bg, who told AFP that he had received information that his reporters were in danger of being assaulted. He said Marinova was linked to bivol.bg’s investigations because its reporters had appeared on her show. “Viktoria’s death, the brutal manner in which she was killed, is an execution,” Yordanov said. “It was meant to serve as an example,...

The European Commission said yesterday (3 February) that its first anti-corruption handbook for the 28 member states showed that there were “no corruption-free zones”, but officials declined to name and shame individual countries. The Commission published yesterday (3 February) its much awaited 40-page anti-corruption report covering the overall situation in the 28-country bloc, coupled with individual chapters on each country, of approximately a dozen pages each. The package is supplemented by a 230-page special Eurobarometer survey on corruption. The EU executive said that its rather modest ambition was to launch a debate on the corruption and identify ways in which...

Corruption across the EU bloc is costing taxpayers billions, as member states fail to tackle the problem head on, according to the European Commission. The Brussels executive on Monday (3 February) published its first ever bi-annual anti-corruption report on each of the 28 EU countries, citing public procurement and obscure political party financing as among the most pervasive problems. […] Public procurement contracts, equivalent to one-fifth of the total EU economy, are said to be the worst affected with up to a quarter of their value lost to corrupt practices. …

  The European Parliament met Tuesday to discuss the issue of tax evasion throughout the UK and the Eurozone, and how the European Parliament might clamp down on those attempting to protect their well earned wealth from government confiscation.    All was going according to plan, until UKIP member Nigel Farage was given the floor.    Farage immediately launched into a classic rant against Barroso and the rest of the EU bureaucrats, stating that it is not the average man on the street that is engaging in tax fraud, but the European Parliament members themselves:    If we look at the...

Serious safety breaches were found last year at a Commission-owned nuclear plant in the Netherlands, but further investigations were blocked by authorities, it has emerged. According to Dutch daily De Volkskrant on Saturday (4 December), a police raid in September 2003 revealed dangerous abuses of environmental and safety standards at a reactor based in Petten, which is owned by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre. However, documents from the Dutch Justice Ministry, obtained by the paper, show that the Dutch government hindered further judicial investigations against the plant. The Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs allegedly feared a diplomatic conflict with...

Watching Big Brother EURSOC Two07 May, 2004 In this week's Spectator British MEP Daniel Hannan publishes a scathing attack on the EU's culture of corruption - and the Brussels' press corps willing complicity in making sure whistleblowers' tales never see the light of day.Hannan cites the scandalous treatment of German investigative reporter Hans-Martin Tillack as representative of the EU's "looking-glass world." Tillack - who is broadly Europhile - has conducted a long investigation into the Eurostat corruption scandal.When he broadened his brief to look into allegations that EU officials failed to act on whistleblower tip-offs, Olaf, the EU's anti-corruption unit,...