The Greatest Comedian Ever?

[Theodoric]

Romano Prodi, the president of the European Commission, was reported yesterday as pledging to tighten controls and crack down on fraud. (The fact that the auditors had refused to approve the EU accounts for the ninth year running may have had something to do with it.) Laugh? I nearly split my sides.

If these two clowns, Prodi and his faithful sidekick, Neil Kinnock, appeared on the stage as a comedy double act, they'd bring the house down. They've had 3 years now to sort things out and they've done absolutely nothing. Prodi is resisting calls to sack those involved in the Eurostat scandal. Kinnock voiced approval of the suspension of the Commission's chief accountant Marta Andreasen when she blew the whistle, rather than supporting her.

As far as I know, they have done nothing to try to improve the financial standards of the ex-Communist states due to join the EU next year. As a taste of things to come, the president of Lithuania is under investigation for alleged links with the Russian mafia. Mind you, with Berlusconi and Chirac around, the standards required are pretty low.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, it is a corrupt institution and I have never been able to grasp why some people want us to become more closely aligned with it.