Questioning Barroso on his Maoist past
NOVEMBER 2010: WHEN Nick Griffin's European Office submitted a Written Question to the European Commission concerning Commission staff with Marxist affiliations, the reply came back from none other than the President of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, himself.
He said:
"The Honourable Member asks about possible political affiliations of the Commissioners and their support staff in the past.
"According to the Code of Conduct for Commissioners, the Members of the Commission may be active members of political parties. This also applies to officials pursuant to Article 1d(1) of the Staff Regulations. In both cases, they must act solely in the interests of the Union when performing their duties within the Commission.
"It is not the Commission’s task to check or evaluate the political affiliations of Commissioners or officials."
According to political researcher Andrew Moffatt, the reply didn't answer the question so he penned another series of questions to Mr Barroso in an effort to pin the President of the European Commission down and to give a more revealing answer.
Andrew wrote:
"I refer to your reply E8354/10EN.
Given the Commission does not consider the extremist, totalitarian political affiliations of unelected Commissioners and officials - who initiate legislation - to be of significance to the people they govern, kindly advise in specific regard to Commissioner Barroso:
1 For what duration was he a member of a Maoist party?
2 Whether, given the elimination of between 60m-100m persons in Maoist China, Mr Barroso will condemn Maoism?
3 Whether Mr Barroso has ever expressed regret for his past affiliations, which many persons will consider to have been distasteful in the extreme?
4 Whether Mr Barroso will apologise to the people of both Europe and China for his previous membership of such an organisation and, if not, why not?
5 Whether Mr Barroso considers his previous affiliations an error of judgement.?
6 Whether Mr Barroso will condemn, outright, both the organisation to which he was affiliated and its policies?"
The reply from the President of the European Commission will be published on this website http://www.nickgriffinmep.eu/ when it is received.
He said:
"The Honourable Member asks about possible political affiliations of the Commissioners and their support staff in the past.
"According to the Code of Conduct for Commissioners, the Members of the Commission may be active members of political parties. This also applies to officials pursuant to Article 1d(1) of the Staff Regulations. In both cases, they must act solely in the interests of the Union when performing their duties within the Commission.
"It is not the Commission’s task to check or evaluate the political affiliations of Commissioners or officials."
According to political researcher Andrew Moffatt, the reply didn't answer the question so he penned another series of questions to Mr Barroso in an effort to pin the President of the European Commission down and to give a more revealing answer.
Andrew wrote:
"I refer to your reply E8354/10EN.
Given the Commission does not consider the extremist, totalitarian political affiliations of unelected Commissioners and officials - who initiate legislation - to be of significance to the people they govern, kindly advise in specific regard to Commissioner Barroso:
1 For what duration was he a member of a Maoist party?
2 Whether, given the elimination of between 60m-100m persons in Maoist China, Mr Barroso will condemn Maoism?
3 Whether Mr Barroso has ever expressed regret for his past affiliations, which many persons will consider to have been distasteful in the extreme?
4 Whether Mr Barroso will apologise to the people of both Europe and China for his previous membership of such an organisation and, if not, why not?
5 Whether Mr Barroso considers his previous affiliations an error of judgement.?
6 Whether Mr Barroso will condemn, outright, both the organisation to which he was affiliated and its policies?"
The reply from the President of the European Commission will be published on this website http://www.nickgriffinmep.eu/ when it is received.
