Sofia stories

There are two very different but strangely apposite stories coming out of Bulgaria this weekend. The first, which has received headlines around the world, but has only been picked up by the Guardian in the UK is that Bulgaria is the sixth and latest of the EU 27 to ratify the Constitution/Lisbon Treaty.

The vote of 195-15 was, of course, a foregone conclusion. So much so that the event was witnessed by MEPs, the Bulgarian diplomatic corps and various great and good. His neo-Imperial Highness, Mr Barosso was of course delighted.

The only opposition were 10 MPs from the nationalist Ataka party and five independents who had been calling for a referendum. These demands were dismissed out hand by the Bulgarian Foreign Minister, Ivaylo Kalfin countered the idea saying the a referendum in unnecessary,

“since even the leader of Ataka didn't understand what the treaty is all about”.

Whereas of course the 195 lobby fodder really had a clue...

The other story is what I guess we should expect more of,

About 350,000 euro in counterfeit bills were found in the possession of two individuals after a police operation in Sofia, the head of Chief Directorate for Combating Organised Crime told reporters on March 21.

The two were arrested close to Madara swimming complex in downtown Sofia while closing the deal to sell the counterfeit euro bills. In other places in Sofia, police found another 5000 euro in counterfeit bills as well as a firearm that had not been licensed and 200 dozes of hard drugs.

Interesting Europol was involved in the case. Which is no surprise seeing as how one of the key 'European crimes' involving the European Arrest and evidence warrant is the counterfeiting of the Euro.

Update

Whoops missed two others but they seem to confirm the trend.

Firstly today sees the opening of the European Information Office in Sofia. Maginficent timing, it will allow Bulgarians to read the Treaty that their politicians ratified on their behalf all of twenty four hours previously.

And secondly, it appears that Euro crime is a real growth industry in Bulgaria,

European Commission has frozen funding under pre-accession aid programmes for Bulgaria over fears that organised crime in the country had created an entire system for defrauding European Union funds, Dnevnik daily reported on March 19, quoting sources familiar with talks between officials in Brussels and Sofia.

Worse yet, the EU executive body believed that the criminals enjoyed protection from officials at the highest level, the newspaper claimed. EC cut off funding for Bulgaria under the Ispa (infrastructure), Phare (development) and Sapard (agriculture) pre-accession programmes, but is also stalling on signing projects that would be financed with structural funds under operational programmes for transport and regional development.

Brussels' suspicions that criminal schemes were protected by high-level officials grew after Bulgarian authorities showed almost no reaction to the results of an investigation by the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF), which uncovered an international scheme for defrauding SAPARD funds with Bulgarian participation....

On March 18, police arrested Ivan Ivanov, deputy head of the Chief Directorate for Combating Organised Crime, in charges of abusing his power and disclosing classified information about ongoing police investigations. Although little information on the case was announced, it was seen as the consequence of the tip-off made last week by opposition member of Parliament Atanas Atanasov.

Oh boy, and we thought that the Parliamentary expenses scandal was a problem, just wait until these chaps have got their feet fully under the table.

Comment Forum

Murphy's Law

The Guardian today has flagged up a speech to be made later at the LSE by the quisling Europe Minister, Jim Murphy. (Aside - and it must be my age showing, why must everything be reported as happening before it does, wouldn't it be an idea for the press to agree that for one day they will not report the news, in order that articles could get back into kilter with events. It would be rather good to open the paper, turn on the radio, whatever and receive the news that has happened, rather than a spun account of stuff that might happen. Too often the media swallow the spinners tales of forthcoming events only for us to discover later that so and so did not in fact say such and such at all. Of course by that time the news agenda has moved on to the next day's news that hasn't happened so no corrections are made and we are left none the wiser. But I digress).

The blithering numpty is starting his campaign to get the Constitution/Treaty ratified without reference to the people of our country. In it he makes a couple of ad hominem attacks on Eurosceptics (something that EU Referendum blog expands upon in full tilt, pointing out that the over egged complaints of many Eurosceptics allows the European institutional elite and their satraps to ignore the serious ones).

I will however look at the substance of Mr Murphy's claims,

"We rely heavy on membership of the EU single market of 480m consumers," he is expected to say. "More than 3m British jobs ... and 60% of our trade would be
directly affected. Foreign direct investment would also be hit".

Which is not what his Lord Malloch-Brown said on December 18th,

My Lords, we believe that 3 million jobs in the UK are linked directly and indirectly to the export of goods and services to the EU.

The difference is subtle but there. You see they are making the plainly ridiculous assumption that leaving the EU would mean that the countries of the EU would stop trading with us. Plainly mad, as the balance of payments for the third quarter of 2007 is the national statistics office puts it,

"A deficit of £11.8 billion was recorded with the EU compared with a deficit of £10.9 billion in the previous quarter".

What is also interesting is that Murphy has increased the amount of trade the Government believes is predicated on membership of the EU to be 60%. This is 5% more than only last month, (Malloch Brown again) ,

"Britain's trade with the European Union has grown from just over 40 per cent of
our total trade in 1973 when we joined to around 55 per cent today".

So by my maths we have £165 billion in credits and £185 billion in debits making a total trade of £340 billion, 5% of which is £17 billion. Thus what Murphy is claiming here is a £17 billion increase in trade with the EU in the last month.

I wonder what psychedelic hat he pulled that particular statistic from?

Then he makes a further claim,

"Nor would we get any regional funding from the EU (which totalled £10bn between 2000 and 2006)."

The the hell does he think that money comes from, Malta? That is our money which is given back to us, or at least some of it is given back to us.

The fellow tells us he wants a "mature debate", but if this his starter for 10 then he better do better than that. A collection of obfuscation, playground attacks and inventive statistics is not what I would describe as a "mature" starting point.

I see he has a page on his website called 'Politics for kids' well quite.

What did Strasbourg do to deserve this?

Rumour has it that Prescott is being lined up for a job at the Council of Europe. So the tradition continues, failed British politicians rest in the European Elysian pastures, yet again.

The sad thing is, is that the Council of Europe is/was a decent organisation that looks after things like fair elections, lord help us.