Do let me know if you find this new feature about the European Parliament interesting, if so I will try to make a habit of it.

Turks begin to get the right idea

In another of those “Don’t you know who I am” moments the latest problem to bedevil Turkey’s attempts to become part of the European Union happened a couple of days ago when a completely unknown Member of the European Parliament (MEP) was refused access to the sublime porte, due to the fact that he was not carrying his own passport, but instead his European Parliamentarian “Laissez passer”. The Turkish customs officials obviously looked at it, looked at the increasingly irate MEP prevented him from entering the country, relenting only when he paid for an entry visa and after protests by both EU officials and Greek diplomats.

The incident was exacerbated by the fact that the MEP, Ioannis Varvitsiotis, a former Greek defence minister, was part of a European People’s Party (EPP) delegation arriving in Istanbul (Constantinople?) for the 9th Dialogue between the Orthodox Church and the EPP.

“I don't know whether this [type of incident] has previously occurred, nevertheless, it happened to me. I sat there [airport] for three and a half hours, waiting and protesting constantly, and only after protests by the Greek embassy, the European People’s Party and the European Parliament was I allowed to leave, and after I paid for a visa, of course, on a diplomatic passport – astonishing,” Varvitsiotis howled to an Athens radio station.

According to reports, upon his arrival from Brussels, Varvitsiotis was told by Turkish customs officials that his European Parliament passport did not constitute a valid travel document as far as they are concerned.

Finally, Greek Govement government spokesman Theodoros Roussopoulos admitted that Varvitsiotis did not have his Greek passport with him; rather he carried the oh so terribly important MEP pass the “laissez-passer”. As only 780 of these things exist in the world is it any wonder that the Turkish customs chap thought it was dodgy?

Meanwhile in Germany

Look ma, Hans has no clothes

In an article sure to rustle a few feathers in Brussels the Handelsblatt has pointed out that German MEPs have little or no influence back home. Singled out for irrelevance is Martin ‘Capo’ Schulz, a man of such insignificance that despite being leader of the European Socialists, the second largest group in the European Parliament, the paper describes him thus: “He is seen as a famous politician in Strasbourg, but without influence in Germany”. One MEP Armin Laschet has moved back to national politics – he is to become the minister for families in North Rhine Westphalia, quite the honour of course.

Showing their irrelevance on the national, now global stage, prize booby Elmar Brok, a German Christian-Democrat MEP, has come up with a bright idea.

Brok, Chairman of the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee and an arch federast, thinks that the European Union should form a coalition to persuade Iran to give up its nuclear program!!! What the hell. He and his cronies have been hamstringing all attempts to crack down of the mullocracy and their nuclear ambitions. At least the one eyed wonder is beginning to wake up. Of course his form of waking up isn’t waking up at all, it is the equivalent of a foreign policy hitting the snooze button on the alarm, when the house is on fire. What precisely does Brok think that the god awful EU troika has been up to over the last few years? How will he manage this “if the EU managed to put Russia on her side, China could also change opinion”. He also seems to believe that the European Union is the height of democratic accountability, and that little green men live down the end of the garden – not forgetting that Tory MEPs make porn movies in the EP (Well come to think about it, it might be a lucrative sideline – you just have to see the new staffers from the Eastern block).

The madness is of course that Brok is the sane one. Described in Handelsblatt as the EP’s “specialist on Iran” the ghastly green Angelika Beer thinks that would be too harsh, to “insulate Iran on the international level” would be a “massive mistake”. Whereas apparently according to her and the idiots who make our foreign policy allowing a theocracy which has historically exported terrorism and is the centre of serious anti-Semitism to get their bloody mitts on Nuclear weapons is just fine and dandy. (I am sure that Ms Beer would be delighted to learn that the regime that she wishes not to isolate only two days ago shot dead a 22 year old, while he sat in his car. His crime? Seyed Mostafa was eating a snack during Ramadam. (I have since discovered that she has hitched her skirt to the Ganji campaign – credit due)

Whoops

Martin Schulz (see above) looked around himself before the last election, and noticed distinct paucity of brown faces in the German Socialist ranks in the European Parliament and thus ensured that this was no longer the case by positively discriminating in favour of one Vural Öger and making him an MEP. Öger a German of Turkish extraction is a massively wealthy businessman who has made his pile importing Turks to Germany and back again. It seems that one of his former business partners a Turco-Belgian by the name of Guray Serimozu was kidnapped. Öger admits that the fellow owes him millions of Euros. “Together with his brother Eray, Serimozu leads the travel bureau Mediterra. He was kidnapped because he reportedly had debts to a foreigner with diplomatic status”. Öger of course denies any links.

Polish MEP linked to murder

The Polish prosecutor’s office is carrying out investigations into Pawel Piskorski, a Christian-Democrat MEP. Piskorski, the former Mayor of Warsaw, is being checked out because a city councillor made some allegations relating to the murder of Bogdan Tyszkiewicz who was shot last August, supposedly by his Belarussian driver.

A personal mandate

A Swedish MEP convicted on accounting fraud says she will not give up her seat, despite her own Liberal Party’s request for her to quit. Maria Carlshamre told her party: “I have made the judgment that the mandate I was given by voters takes precedence. I am here on a personal mandate”.