16 July 2005 Blog Home : July 2005 : Permalink
Cocaine traces have been found at the European Parliament in an inquiry by one of Germany's main broadcasters.
The Sat-1 channel sent reporters to take 46 swabs from toilets and other public areas of the Brussels buildings. Nearly all tested positive for cocaine.
... A total of 41 of the reporters' swabs tested positive for cocaine.
However this doesn't seem to be cause for widespread alarm because
"It seems the findings are in line with findings in other public buildings," Ms Van den Broeke told the BBC News website.
The parliament may look into whether the testing was legal as it was performed without its consent or knowledge.
I admit the spokeswomen does have a point - I wonder how many toilets in the BBC, to pick a broadcaster totally not at random, would also produce positive test results, and for that matter what the results would be in other legislatures. However it is interesting that rather than try and follow up and see whether the story is true, the prefered response appears to be to try and discredit the testing method and then claim that everyone else does it too. No doubt if the story gets more legs than it currently has an EU regulation will be passed banning such tests, because the usual EU reaction to bad news is to atteck the messnger rather than fix the problem.The claims of drug abuse at the European Parliament complex was greeted with derision by Nigel Farage, an MEP for the United Kingdom Independence Party.
He said: "Given the stultifying boredom of committee work in Brussels, it is hardly surprising. But it could explain the decisions they come up with."