A television station has found traces of cocaine in 41 of 46 lavatories tested at the European Parliament in Brussels.
Researchers for the German Sat-1 channel were sent to the palatial glass and steel complex to take swab samples. They apparently found conclusive evidence of drug use.
Parliamentary officials said they were not aware of any problem of cocaine abuse among staff.
The Institute for Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Research in Nuremburg, which analysed the swab samples, found that the amounts were sufficiently large that they could not have been carried in unwittingly by people who had picked up minute traces on their clothing, for example. They had to have been taken in by officials, staff or visitors, experts said.
Prof Fritz Sorgel, of the laboratory,
told Spiegel Online, a German internet news site, that tests on almost
any public building would reveal cocaine traces.
“Therefore I am not at all surprised that cocaine has been found in the European Parliament,” he said.
All the areas tested are open to visitors and the television station did not accuse any MEPs of taking drugs.
In 2000 the channel investigated 28 lavatories at the new German parliament buildings in Berlin and found traces of cocaine in 22. Shortly afterwards a Sunday newspaper took 22 samples from lavatories in the House of Lords and the House of Commons, four of which proved positive.
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.”
All the areas tested are open to visitors and the television station did not accuse any MEPs of taking drugs.
In 2000 the channel investigated 28 lavatories at the new German parliament buildings in Berlin and found traces of cocaine in 22. Shortly afterwards a Sunday newspaper took 22 samples from lavatories in the House of Lords and the House of Commons, four of which proved positive.
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.”
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