Distorted mirror

With virtually all the serious politicians having left the EP, the institution has become a playground for an ostentatious and loud minority by today, with only Eva Kaili and her kindred comrades remaining to execute the well-paying tasks assigned to them.

Strasbourg, 2023. július 11. A korrupciós botrányba keveredett Eva Kaili görög szocialista párti képviselõ, az Európai Parlament (EP) volt alelnöke az uniós törvényhozás plenáris ülésén Strasbourgban 2023. július 11-én. A korábban vizsgálati fogságban levõ Kailit április 14-én a brüsszeli Haren börtönbõl házi õrizetbe helyezték a belga fõvárosban, majd késõbb EP-képviselõi jogköre gyakorlását is engedélyezték. Az idõközben leváltott EP-alelnököt még 2022. december 9-én tartóztatták le a belga hatóságok a Katar-gate néven elhíresült korrupciós ügyben indított nyomozás során. MTI/EPA/Julien Warnand Fotó: Julien Warnand

The rule of law in the European Union is a very sensitive issue. It is a crucial issue for the European project, and every self-appointed democrat feels that they alone can decide what is democratic and what is not. They scrutinise regulations and thumb through legal code books until their personal objectives are bolstered by them and then they announce the verdict stating whether something is democratic or not. In a better case, this remains at the level of Facebook messages, circulating among photos taken of kittens and holiday trips, in a worse case, someone pays them for it and the Brussels glass palace believed to be modern in the 1980s lends them authority.

The king is naked, of course, as almost everyone in Europe knows. In the vote in the European Parliament, Eva Kaili herself voted to set up a strict ethics body, because integrity standards really need to apply to MEPs first. It is perhaps not surprising that the poster girl for the biggest scandal in recent history voted in favour of utmost rigour, as an independent MEP, and quite rightly so, since she is no longer under house arrest and banned from public office. Ms Kaili has the same right to be presumed innocent as anyone else, and she takes advantage of it. But is this ethical for an elected representative? No, it is clearly undermining the authority of the European Parliament. Someone should tell the iconic blonde MEP that something that is lawful is not necessarily morally founded. But it's pointless,  MEPs get paid for voting, for casting their ballot, for turning up every now and then, and rich is the person who bends down to pick up the last cent lying on the street. And Eva Kaili is indeed a very rich person.

The European Parliament – with a few honourable exceptions – is made up of people who are trying to position themselves, as a body, the only one that has anything to do with the citizens living in European countries. As the EP is a rather expensive fig leaf, the institution can demand a lot from the European Commission, can blackmail it in fact, because without the EP the EU decision-making process as it is would resemble some kind of democratic dictatorship. With the EP, however, the public can be made to believe that Ursula von der Leyen speaks out for European people and that the Commission President receives no guidance from Berlin.

And then comes Eva Kaili, pushing a wheelbarrow full of bribes out of her office, and, ignoring protests, she casts her vote. And the people of Europe see that they are represented by these scoundrels, by these crooked, corruptible officials with distorted souls. The hellishly expensive fig leaf turned into a self-appointed legislator, an inescapable witch's kitchen of policy-making, but precisely because of their corrupted self, every word they put to paper is empty. The words lack credibility and meaning, and the patina has not yet coated the building of the European Parliament. That takes time and a lot of work that does not lead to scandals but proves to be useful, deserving recognition regardless of political party affiliations. With virtually all the serious politicians having left the institution, the EP has become a playground of an ostentatious and loud minority by today, with only Eva Kaili and her kindred comrades remaining to execute the well-paying tasks assigned to them. 

Unfortunately, this also affects us. Not the negligence of corrupt officials, that we have seen happening in every member state. It is the way the European Parliament works and acts, the rampant immorality that should raise concerns because this reflects us. We can see ourselves in this distorted mirror, showing the imperfection of this European Union, and it is our task to polish this mirror and bring back its shine. However, some people want this distorted mirror.  Maybe because they themselves have become tarnished over the years. Cover photo: Greek Socialist MEP Eva Kaili, former vice-president of the European Parliament, who is implicated in a corruption scandal, speaks during a plenary session of the EU legislature in Strasbourg on 11 July 2023. Eva Kaili, who had previously been remanded in custody, was transferred from Haren prison in Brussels to house arrest in the Belgian capital on 14 April and was later allowed to exercise her MEP powers. She was arrested by the Belgian authorities on 9 December 2022 during an investigation into the corruption case known as Qatargate. (Photo:MTI/EPA/Julien Warnand)