The KKE voted against the joint resolution of the European Parliament entitled “suspicions of corruption from Qatar and the broader need for transparency and accountability in the EU institutions”, which constitutes an agonizing attempt to portray the reprehensible and repulsive corruption and bribery scandal unfolding in the EU, centered on the European Parliament, as an isolated incident, exclusively concerning some corrupt MEPs and officials. The EU and its institutions seek to disconnect the bribery and corruption of former and current MEPs, such as the former Vice-President of the European Parliament E. Kaili, from the scandal of all scandals. And this is no other than the fact that the European Union and all its institutions were created, exist, and function to serve the interests of capital. This is the nature of the EU and all its institutions, including its self-proclaimed ‘only directly elected’ institution, that inevitably gives rise to corruption within its ranks and under-the-table dealings of its political staff with the monopoly groups —European and non-European—and those who represent them thatin broad daylight openly defend capitalist interests and profits.

It is indicative that the resolution cynically confesses that the ability of lobbyists ‘to influence decision-making in parliament by way of arguments is a vital part of European democracy’.

The measures proposed in the resolution on the creation of transparency committees such as an “independent ethics body with the power to investigate all EU institutions, bodies and agencies” are bound to suffer the same fate as the previous ones. The ‘transparency register’ of lobbies that was advertised a few years ago as an ‘anti-corruption shield’ has turned out to be a register for the legalization and whitewashing of so-called lobbies – pressure groups, enabling them to walk aroundthe corridors and offices of MEPs, Commissioners, and other EU officials undisturbed and with the EU’s stamp of approval topromote their interests.

They were able to organize events and receptions, think tanks, etc. where all the political staff of the EU gather. Because all these ‘anti-corruption measures’ do not want to, nor can they touch the source of decay and mire: the barbaric exploitative edifice of capitalism and its political system that operates to sacrifice the lives and rights of working people on the altar of the profitability of business groups.

The workers have nothing to expect from the EU and the bourgeois political forces, both in government and in opposition. The position of the KKE is confirmed: Only the people will save the people, when they decide to free themselves from the shackles of the power of capital and its unions and get rid of all those who are a millstone around their necks, taking up the reins of the economy and power into their own hands. 

15/12/2022

THE MEPs of the KKE