It would seem that a significant number of people who spend time in the EU Parliament are using cocaine. Of course, that's okay because, according to Parliamentary spokeswoman Marjory van den Broeke, "It seems the findings are in line with the findings in other public buildings." In other words, this just means that cocaine abuse is no larger a problem in the EU Parliament than in European society at large. Funny, I would have thought you'd want people working in a legislature to be less likely to abuse drugs like cocaine than society at large. Who knows. Maybe it helps them get more work done.
Ms. van den Broeke also gives a good non-denial-denial when she says "It is not a problem we are aware of at all." And of course, the EU Parliament also attepmts to duck the issue by saying that the German press' investigation may have been illegal because they didn't notify the EU Parliament before going forward with their investigation. What rot. The EU Parliament is a public institution, and the media have a right to investigate what goes on there. I know press freedom isn't the same in Europe as it is here, but holding government institutions to account is one of the primary functions of the news media, and if they uncover a problem like this, the EU Parliament shouldn't be able to deflect attention from the substantive problem by hiding behind a tissue-paper thin legal nicety. If there is a problem with drug abuse at the EU Parliament, the EU Parliament should fix it and publicly, not stonewall and try to turn attention away from an obvious problem. Although, if they did that, they wouldn't be the EU Parliament, would they?
(via Drudge)
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