1. From today's Telegraph: Paul van Buitenen, the Dutch official who forced the mass resignation of the commission led by Jacques Santer three years ago, told Euro-MPs that he would speak out unless Neil Kinnock, the commissioner in charge of administrative reform, responded seriously to a 235-page dossier of corruption allegations he submitted last August. The dossier, backed by 5,000 pages of documents, is becoming a test of whether anything has changed in Brussels since the exposure in 1999 of rampant mismanagement, nepotism and fraud by senior commissioners and their 20,000 fonctionnaires. Just remind me, someone, why Britain (or the Eastern European states seeking to join) is seeking closer integration into such an utterly corrupt body.
2. At the end of January, the European Commission decided to deliver an early warning to Germany and Portugal, for failing to meet their budgetary targets under the Stability and Growth Pact. But, surprise, surprise, at the meeting on Feb 12th, the reprimand was blocked by Germany (& others) - a Germany led by Gerhard Schroeder who said in an interview with Die Welt in 1997 that "something would start to crumble" if the Stability and Growth Pact was not upheld. That's the trouble with the EU: nobody feels European, and when the chips are down folks react for the good of their country, not for the good of Europe (I don't exclude Britain from this).
3. At the top of the EU sit the three institutions the Commission, the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament. Does anyone know how they relate to each other? Is one supreme? Which one(s) sets the budget? Which one(s) makes law? Does anyone care?