EU minutes ignore ‘racist’ charge against PVV parliamentarian

A conflict between a European MP for the anti-Islam PVV and Turkey’s minister for European affairs has been excluded from minutes of the meeting, which took place in May, the Volkskrant reports on Tuesday.


During the row, which took place during a meeting between the European and Turkish parliaments in Istanbul, Egemen Bagis called MEP Barry Madlener a racist, the paper says.
But no mention of the incident is contained in minutes of the meeting, much to Madlener’s fury. ‘This is crazy,’ he told the paper. ‘Minutes should give an accurate picture of what was said.’
Thomas Grünert, secretary to the European parliament, told the paper the comments had not been recorded because they were ‘not really a political point’ and that it ‘was something personal between Madlener and Bagis’.
The PVV is opposed to Turkish membership of the EU.

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