Irwin Stelzer's ignorance knows no bounds

By Marjorie Smith

Irwin's paean to Tony Blair in today's Guardian (15/10/09) contained his usual brand of casual xenophobia about the EU that should not go unchallenged.

As a long-time adviser to Rupert Murdoch, regular contributor to the The Weekly Standard in the U.S. and obviously highly thought of in American neo-conservative circles, Stelzer is undoubtedly an intelligent man with a coherent set of beliefs based on a wide experience of US politics. You might find many of his views disagreeable, but they are well constructed; well argued and consistent. He is no fool.

However, whenever he ventures onto the subject of the EU, his prejudices (like most of Murdoch's media empire) seem to overwhelm his normal rational approach and he sinks to the level of an ignoramus polemicist more interested in composing invective than advancing a rational case to support his views.

His reference to the EU "I yield to no one in my dislike of the unaccountable kleptocratic bureaucracy and its appropriation to itself of the prerogatives of Parliament" is empty-headed rhetoric that demonstrates a profound ignorance of the structures of the EU, its origins and its legal basis. He also has a casual dismissive reference to democracy when he states "The EU's interest, which is what the role is all about now, is clearly in appointing (elections are not the thing in the EU° a famous dynamic leader ….". which reveals the shallowness of his knowledge about the European Union.

First of all, the use of the emotive term "Kleptocratic", more usually used in reference to African dictators of yore, such as the Former President of Gabon, Omar Bongo and the late President Mobutu of Zaire, who thieved millions upon millions of pound, dollars etc. etc. whilst Western leaders turned a blind eye.

To claim that the EU's bureaucracy (the Commission) is kleptocratic is a crass insult that demonstrates an appallingly lack of knowledge about the workings of the EU. 80% of the EU's budget is managed and spent by he EU's Member States' at the national level. The remaining 20% is tightly controlled and subject to very very little fraud indeed. An in-depth study of other bureaucracies in Western countries may unearth some disturbing comparative data.

The use of the word kleptocratic is clearly designed to represent a form of intellectual shorthand as part of a lazy slur. Like the application if the words rape/raped or accusing somebody of being a denier, it is a manoeuvre designed to cast a slur by using emotive words completely out of context.

This overt political attack is based on the fact that the EU has not had its accounts signed off for over 10 years. This is true, partly because of the complexity of the budget process, the high levels of validation demanded by its auditors and the fact that most is spent by the Member Sates and not by the Commission. However, it might be educational to Stelzer if he were to look at other Governmental systems for similarities.

The US Federal budget has not been signed off as satisfactory for many years (in excess of 10) and the UK's Audit Commission has stated that if the UK's budget was subject to the same rules as the EU's it would have been in a similar position. In fact the Audit Commission has stated that the Treasury and the Department of Work and Pensions budgets are not satisfactory and have not been for many years. As for kleptomania, the legal, but dubious, practice of pork barrel politics in the US Congress is an example to the world of how to appropriate tax revenues in the pursuit of personal electoral gain.

As for the kleptocratic bureaucracy being unaccountable, the accusation is laughable and should be treated with the contempt it deserves. Appointed by the democratically elected leaders of the 27 Member States, confirmed by the directly-elected European parliament and subject to full force of EU law interpreted by a wholly independent judiciary in the European Court of Justice, the 27 Commissioners are fully accountable. Furthermore, the Council of Ministers (the directly elected national Governmental Ministers from Member States, oversee every part of the Commission's legislative and administrative roles. Whilst the European Parliament has complete control of the Commission's budget.

For the remaining 20,000 people who work for the Commission (N.B. smaller in number than the administrative staff of many large Metropolitan Councils in the UK and smaller than most Government departments in the UK), the slur that they are kleptocrats and unaccountable is outrageous and highly insulting.

As for the suggestion that the EU has appropriated the prerogatives of the UK Parliament, this is an empty-headed claim of little substance. All powers that now rest at the EU-level are either the product of Treaties passed by Parliament and receiving the royal assent or the subject of Court rulings by an independent judiciary, based on an interpretation of such treaties and firmly grounded in the rule of law.

An American commentator on the workings and ethics of the European Union might gain some respect for his views if they were even loosely grounded in facts.