Article

2004-02-23

Austriaâs secret service proposal falls flat

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Posted by tipper 2004-02-23 12:32:53 AM|| || Front Page|| [1 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 'Europol'?? Good grief.

Posted by Rafael 2004-2-23 2:25:36 AM|| 2004-2-23 2:25:36 AM|| Front Page Top

#2 Gods above! You people think it sinister when the EU gets more powers, and you think it even more sinister when it doesn't? Fine, be insane and hypocritical -- I knew you for that already after all.

And Rafael, first time you hear of Europol?

Posted by Aris Katsaris 2004-2-23 6:13:00 AM|| 2004-2-23 6:13:00 AM|| Front Page Top

#3 Heavens, indeed. No one has used "sinister" regards the EU to my knowledge - that's a canard to create drama - AFIK, the EU can't muster anything sinister, except perhaps a chocolate bunny with a particularly demonic look in his eyes. Europol is an EU version (read: duplication) of Interpol, which relies upon Interpol resources, heh - only it's, uh, democratic. Yup. Read and be "informed" by their promo text.

Regards the word "sinister", I would suggest that "comical" is far more accurate regards RB comments. It is best illustrated with examples. The EU bureaucracy ordered a village in Scotland to dismantle the swing in their park for its failure to meet "EU Standards" yet, at the same time, EuroStat was mired in a massive financial scandal involving almost 5M Euros where "auditors found a "total lack of an audit trail "which made it impossible to find out where the money went." Your swingset can be off by an inch in some dimension, so you must tear it down. But contracts can be issued to non-existent companies and EuroStat can run a double-accounting system (2 sets of books, one cooked) without auditing.

Now, when contrasted, that's some funny shit - and almost redefines hypocrisy. A fascinating bit is this from the same BBC story:
"Who profited? Mr Franchet, Mr Byk and Mr Nanopoulos deny any fraud, claiming that the secret bank accounts simply enabled them to pay contracts on time by bypassing lengthy EU bureaucratic procedures."

From the horses' mouths. Sinister? No. Comical and hypocritical? Indeed.

Posted by Anonymous 2004-2-23 11:18:13 AM|| 2004-2-23 11:18:13 AM|| Front Page Top

#4 Ooh, the dreaded "EU bureaucracy" again. Look at me shiver.

Unlike what you may think, EU bureaucrats in Brussels aren't in the habit of leaving their offices in Brussels to visit obscure little Scottish villages and measuring people's swingsets.

I'd bet quite a bit of money that what *actually* happened, is that some *British* officials, following *British* law, found those swingsets to be violating standards that had been voted by the *British* parliament.

And then they ofcourse blamed it to the EU bureaucrats being nasty and stuff.

So, anonymous, want us to bet on the nationality of the inspectors that took down those swings? Or which country's laws they were following? Because what I read through googling for a couple minutes, is that the British parliament was the one that turned some certain non-mandatory "European Standards of Safety" into *British* law.

Oooh, lookit what I have found here:
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/printer-friendly.asp?ARTICLE_ID=30597

"While the EU directive is not law, failing to comply could leave the village council open to lawsuits if a child were injured. "

In short, this isn't about some evil EU guys taking down children's swings -- this about the EU providing some non-mandatory safety standards, accepted then by the British parliament, and leaving the town council open to lawsuits *if* a child got hurt.

Posted by Aris Katsaris 2004-2-23 12:48:35 PM|| 2004-2-23 12:48:35 PM|| Front Page Top

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