Sir,
Regarding ‘Barroso warns opponents not to weaken Europe’:
I would like to share with you my personal view on why José Manuel Barroso should not be re-elected as president of the Commission of the European Communities (alias the European Commission).
I would not support Mr. Barroso for a second term because:
1) The legislation developed by the Commission presided over by him seems not to serve European citizens, who are the sovereign of all the European Institutions, but big industry.
Two perfect examples of such legislation are the Commission’s controversial proposal to extend the duration of protection applicable to performances and phonograms from the current 50 years to 95 years after publication (the duration was cut down by the European Parliament) and the ban on the cheap and reliable mercury thermometers and incandescent light bulbs in favour of more expensive, less reliable and less environment friendly (taking into consideration their whole life-cycle) alternatives.
2) His Commission is not only rotten with corruption and fraud [1] but counter-actions taken by Commission officials are strongly discouraged by the regulations in place, and employees who dare expose illegal activities in the Commission are even punished with dismissal on false pretences of disregarded loyalty [2]. In addition, lack of transparency, hypocrisy and deceit have been common practice in the European Commission during Mr. Barroso’s mandate [2], [3], [4], [5], [6], [7], [8].
3) Policies developed by his Commission that cost the taxpayer hundreds of millions of euros per year are not based on state-of-the-art scientific evidence and are unsustainable [3], [4], [9].
These are only few of the reasons why I believe Europeans should be given a better alternative than Mr. Barroso.
Sincerely,
Svetoslav Apostolov
References
[1] Apostolov, S. 2009. The Mismanagement, Corruption and Fraud of the European Institutions. [online]
URL: http://spapostolov.blogactiv.eu/2009/09/15/mismanagement-corruption-and-fraud-of-the-european-institutions/ (page last accessed on 16.09.2009).
[2] Apostolov, S. 2009. The European Institutions’ Hypocrisy. [online]
URL: http://spapostolov.blogactiv.eu/2009/09/16/european-institutions-hypocrisy/ (page last accessed on 16.09.2009).
[3] Apostolov, S. 2009. The EU institutions’ hypocritical fight against climate change. [online]
URL: http://euractiv.blogactiv.eu/2009/07/13/the-community-institutions-brainwashed-or-brainwashing-hypocrites/ (page last accessed on 16.09.2009).
[4] Apostolov, S. 2009. Remarks on “A Response To ‘EU Institutions Hypocritical Fight Against Climate Change’”. [online]
URL: http://spapostolov.blogactiv.eu/2009/07/16/remarks-on-response-to-eu-institutions-hypocritical-fight-against-climate-change/ (page last accessed on 16.09.2009).
[5] Apostolov, S. 2009. Reforming spending on current and former high-ranking EU officials to reinforce democracy and transparency. [online]
URL: http://spapostolov.blogactiv.eu/2009/07/08/reforming-spending-on-current-and-former-high-ranking-eu-officials-to-reinforce-democracy-and-transparency/ (page last accessed on 15.09.2009).
[6] Apostolov, S. 2009c. The European Commission’s Deceits – Part 1: The Treaty of Lisbon Deceit. [online]
URL: http://spapostolov.blogactiv.eu/2009/08/19/the-european-commissions-deceits-part-1/ (page last accessed on 15.09.2009).
[7] Apostolov, S. 2009. The European Commission’s Deceits – Part 2: The EPSO’s Personal Data Protection Policy Deceit. [online]
URL: http://spapostolov.blogactiv.eu/2009/08/29/the-european-commissions-deceits-part-2/ (page last accessed on 15.09.2009).
[8] Apostolov, S. 2009. The European Commission’s Deceits – Part 3: The Subsistence Expenses Deceit. [online]
URL: http://spapostolov.blogactiv.eu/2009/09/15/european-commissions-deceits-part-3/ (page last accessed on 15.09.2009).
[9] OUT-LAW. 2008. European Commission is misleading EU on copyright extension, says academic. [online]
URL: http://www.out-law.com/page-9378 (page last accessed on 31.08.2009).
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* This post is a reprint of a letter to the editor of EurActiv published on September 16th, 2009.
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