Posted on 09/13/2011 4:51:25 PM PDT by Olog-hai
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi avoided a court hearing in Italy today (13 September) regarding a sex and bribery scandal by scheduling meetings with the presidents of the three main EU institutions, who are all from his own center-right political family. …
European Commission spokesperson Alejandro Ulzurrun admitted that the idea of holding a meeting between Commission President José Manuel Barroso and Berlusconi, which took place today in Strasbourg, came from the Italian government. He insisted that the leaders had to discuss the "important" issue of Italy's economic situation, and stressed that whenever Barroso received requests from EU leaders for meetings he always did "his utmost to accommodate them". But he did not answer EurActiv's enquiry as to whether Barroso could have received Berlusconi on a different day to that of his scheduled court appearance. …
German MEP Rebecca Harms, co-chair of the Greens/European Free Alliance group in the European Parliament, warned that his visit could put the EU institutions at risk of not being "taken seriously in Italy".
"The fact that Berlusconi tries to exploit the European institutions for personal ends is worrying," said Martin Schulz, leader of the Socialists and Democrats group in the European Parliament. …
(Excerpt) Read more at euractiv.com ...
Berlusconi is a clown.
That might be an understatement.
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