For a strong start into the second season, we talk about corruption in the EU. In the basement of the European Parliament we talk Italian mafia, Orbán’s son-in-law, and the misuse of public funding in member states with MEPs.
Welcome to season 2 of the Standard Time Talk show! This year we’ll tour Warsaw and Brussels, as well as our beloved Vienna and Budapest, to meet people from all over Europe, and talk about trash, tourism, violent protest and so much more.
For a strong start into the new season, we went all the way to Brussels to talk about corruption within the EU. The EU might dwarf in geographical size compared to Russia or China, but economically speaking, it federates incredible power.
The European Union’s GDP is estimated to be 17.82 trillion Euros in 2024, representing around one-sixth of the global economy. It’s so much money, even the Spanish Habsburgs couldn’t pointlessly waste it all!
The European Union is also a most devoted public spender. Billions are spent on roads and rails and harbors and hospitals and even this show somehow. One other great cost on the side of these more, let’s say noble pursuits, is corruption, estimated to cost the EU between 179 billion and 990 billion euros per year. That’s 6% of the union’s GDP. 70% of Europeans believe that corruption is widespread in their countries – and it’s getting worse.
Now, there is a lot of guessing space between those numbers, but even if we take the more conservative estimate, that’s enough money to go to the moon 10 times, and even could open a Schnitzel House up there. Or buy all your friends and foes the world’s most expensive toy called “rabbit” by Jeff Koons, which, somehow, looks like a very violent intimate toy for polygamist polyglots.
Or, might sound crazy, but we could perhaps invest all those lost billions in green energy, use it to improve public health systems, fund schools or something?
Now, when it comes to the Union’s money, we must clarify something: 80% of all EU funding, so 4 out of every 5 euros, is distributed by member states, putting them in prime position to enforce their local interests. But, it also provides some of them with an opportunity to abuse such funds with fairly little oversight. For instance, in our host’s beloved home country, Hungary, prime minister Viktor Orbán’s son-in-law miraculously became one of the country’s richest ‘businessmen’ in just a few short years, winning tender upon tender from public EU funds.
But jokes aside, the EU has been very slow to respond to Hungary’s abuse of EU funds – and its democratic deterioration. After many years of investigating, reporting and finger wagging over corruption and the country’s democratic demise, the EU finally froze 10.2 Billion EU funds in 2023 trying to show Hungary that YES, the EU has the balls… or, the ovaries rather, to enforce consequences!
But, after a few months they got unfrozen again. What’s your game here, EU?
Since the EU is a federation and not a singular state, institutions are not united, jurisdictions are limited, and most often the consequences of corruption require unified political will to enforce it.
In today’s premiere episode we will talk about the consequences of corruption for Hungary, how the Italian Mafia is using EU funds, and we’ll discuss the misuse of public money across ALL EU member states.
We have some members of the new parliament to discuss this with us – in a lovely basement studio in the European Parliament’s Brussels building.
Daniel Freund is a German politician who has been serving as a member of the European Parliament since 2019 in the Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance. He has been working to establish of an independent ethics body to track and sanction conflicts of interests in all EU institutions. And he has some serious beef with the Hungarian government.
Sabrina Pignedoli is also a member of the European Parliament since 2019, representing Italy. As a journalist she had specialized in the affairs of the Italian mafia, and now she’s been advising on the phenomenon of mafias and other criminal associations, including foreign ones.
Gwendoline Delbos-Corfield is a French politician from the ecologist party Europe Ecologie Les Verts, and a Member of the European Parliament. From 2019 until 2020, she served as vice-chair of the Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality. Since 2021, Delbos-Corfield has been part of the Parliament’s delegation to the Conference on the Future of Europe
Réka Kinga Papp anchor
Daniela Univazo writer-editor
Merve Akyel art director, Eurozine
Szilvia Pintér producer
Priyanka Hutschenreiter project manager
Julia Sobota captions and translations
Zsófia Gabriella Papp digital producer
Management
Judit Csikós finance
Réka Kinga Papp editor-in-chief
Csilla Nagyné Kardos office administration
Video Crew
Voxbox Multimedia Studios in Brussels
Gergely Áron Pápai photography
Postproduction
Nóra Ruszkai video editor
István Nagy lead video editor
Milán Golovics dialogue editor
Art
Victor Maria Lima animation
Crypt-of-Insomnia theme music
Hosted by
The CDU Library, Hungary
Article Links:
Cracking Down on Corruption – Finance & Development Magazine
Jeff Koons’s ‘Rabbit’ Sculpture Sells for $91 Million – The Wall Street Journal
NASA Chief Says Returning Astronauts to the Moon Could Cost $30 Billion
Corruption and bribery scandal rocks European Parliament – CBS News
What corruption looks like in the West | DW Analysis
EU corruption scandal suspect offers cooperation for lighter sentence | DW News
Published 19 September 2024
Original in English
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