Greg Lance - Watkins (Greg_L-W)
#0381* – More Whistle Blowing by Friends at The Sunday Times
Posted by Greg Lance - Watkins (Greg_L-W) on 27/03/2011
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with more to come next week!
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Hi,
this story commenced last week in The Sunday Times and like Nikki Sinclaire‘s exposure of corruption with signing in – never before covered in The British media by an MEP and also her exposure of the 36% increase allowance for cosmetic surgery, viagra and the like and also her story about the the profligate squandering of tax payers’ money on scanners that now sit brand new but unused years later because MEPs were not prepared to be scanned – though they seek to impose these scanners on the hoy poloy they rule – the serfs are not to be trueted but the self important scum that have risen to the top in The EU scam are above reproach (YEAAAAH).
There is a lot more coming by way of leaks – From my meeeja contacts the Nikki saga of Leaks is set to run and run. I hope they are right because this is exactly what the public elected UKIP MEPs to do even if she does seem to be the only one delivering!
The surprising thing is that despite the importance of these exposures of outright corruption and having got them into British papers we find all too often that the British press take little notice whilst the story spreads like a wild fire across Continental EU.
There are clearly grounds to accuse the media of not addressing the issues of EUroRealism but in fairness the level of apathy and ignorance on the part of the populace are cringeworthy – for this I blame organisations like UKIP who have trousered 10s of £Millions yet have failed to market the benefits of leaving The EU in fact despite paying their senior media consultants upto £95,000 a year and even rank amateurs like Gawain Towler at £75K or so and the dishonest idiot Mark Croucher almost £50K – UKIP consistently fails to get coverage of any gravitas or for that matter value for money in column inches.
Consider the UKIP relaunch attempt recently in Scarborough which passed the public by almost totally for lack of competent PR despite the huge investment of other people’s money!
Insight: Fourth MEP taped in ‘cash-for-laws’ scandal
A member has been recorded agreeing to alter consumer law, designed to protect consumers in Britain and Europe, for a fake lobbying firm
A Spanish member of the European parliament has been secretly recorded agreeing to change laws intended to protect consumers in Britain and Europe.
Pablo Zalba Bidegain is the fourth MEP to be named in the “cash-for-laws” scandal that has been front-page news across Europe following the disclosures in The Sunday Times last week.
Last month Zalba tabled an amendment using the exact words written for him by our undercover journalists who were posing as lobbyists. The reporters had made clear that he would be paid for the work.
His amendment now appears in the parliament’s official documents and may, indeed, become law as Zalba also has a role as an official responsible for the legislation he was attempting to alter.
Three MEPs are now being investigated by prosecutors in their home countries after they agreed to accept the offer of payment in return for amending laws.
Their offices in the parliament have been sealed to prevent anyone trying to destroy the evidence.
Ernst Strasser, an Austrian former interior minister, and Zoran Thaler, a Slovenian former foreign minister, resigned from the parliament within 48 hours of our disclosures.
The third MEP, Adrian Severin, a former Romanian deputy prime minister, was thrown out of the Socialist group and his party last week. He has refused to resign, despite being booed in parliament on Wednesday.
Jerzy Buzek, the parliament’s president, reacted to the disclosures by calling for the parliament’s “internal code” to be strengthened and for tougher sanctions to be introduced to punish errant members. Diana Wallis, a Liberal Democrat who is vice-president, said there should be a “proper criminal investigation” into the three MEPs.
Zalba, a 36-year-old from Pamplona with a business background, was one of 14 MEPs who held meetings with our undercover reporters over the winter months.
He holds an important role in the European People’s party, the second largest group in the parliament, as the shadow rapporteur responsible for the Investor Compensation Schemes (ICS) directive — a proposed new law protecting investors who lose money.
The first meeting with Zalba was held in his cramped Strasbourg office on January 19. The reporters explained that they were from a London-based lobbying company that wanted to hire a “partner within the parliament” for their advisory board who could help “influence” legislation.
Handsome and impeccably dressed, Zalba said that in general it was “easy” for an MEP to amend legislation.
Zalba: I can amend any single report which the European parliament prepares . . .
Reporter: Do you just submit the amendment?
Zalba: … I mean here there are many contacts of many lobbyists and many of them want us to amend a report.
Reporter: Yes, I bet.
Zalba: And it’s up to you whether to copy/paste … I try to study carefully not only the report but also the amendments and I try not to sign any amendment I had not studied carefully.
The MEP’s subsequent comments indicated that there would be no problem putting down amendments for the fake lobbyists’ clients.
Reporter: There’s a couple of things that I’m aware are coming up that are going to affect our clients, that it would be really useful to put an amendment down so, if, and that’s something you could probably help us with?
Zalba: Yeah.
Reporter: Okay.
Zalba: No, no, definitely, definitely.
The reporters suggested that board members would typically be paid €100,000 (£87,800) a year. Zalba had two weeks to think over the proposal before the next meeting in Brussels. The MEP started by explaining that he would “definitely” join the advisory board if his party did not require him to stand in a Spanish regional election. He would know in a couple of weeks’ time.
The reporters then told Zalba their client had some work which could be paid for by backdating his contract or as a consultancy fee if he did not take up the €100,000-a-year role. The work was to make amendments to the ICS directive on behalf of the client. Would he be able to table amendments for them?
“Yeah, yeah, if there is no problem that goes against the criteria of my group, of course, of course,” he said.On returning to London, the reporters emailed Zalba asking for changes to a part of the ICS directive that compelled investment firms to advertise the scheme on their websites. The reporters wanted to strike out the whole section, or amend it so that firms could avoid advertising it.
To view the original article AND Video CLICK HERE
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Ukip-vs-EUkip 