Like rats abandoning a sinking ship... Head of Delegation in Budapest Koppen... Bags packed and ready to go!! Many are commenting on the sudden enthusiasm with which local heads of delegations of the European Commission, in some accession countries, are talking about packing their bags when in fact they have not finished their jobs. It has been noted that this talk is particularly circulating in Bratislava, Prague and Budapest. People have noted that in the Czech republic, Hungary and Slovakia the heads of delegations are not hiding their enthusiasm to leave. But for some, this behaviour is considered to be tantamount to abandoment of duty given that the Commission is facing legal action over failures to act on preaccession issues in these countries. The European Commission has had some 14 years of Phare funding activity and almost 10 years in pre-accession discussion and yet has failed lamentably to curb the excesses of European law breaking by these governments. The Commisison has failed in its mandate provided by the Council. For example, in the case of Hungary, Mr. Koppen the Head of Delegation in Budapest, is stating everything is just fine and he has nothing further to do. He just happens, like the other delegation heads, to have ignored pointedly the question of the institutiuonal state discrimination against the Roma, which he flippantly states is a "long term issue". With the Commision doing nothing over the last decade he certainly does see this as a long term issue. But Koppen ducks the fact that pre-accession criteria require that European law breaking, directly by governemnts and civil servants, must stop before accession; this is hardly a long term issue. Mr. Koppen knows all of this but he and his colleagues don't really seem to care. These governments have run rings round them to prevent them from blowing the whistle on the horrific school segregation of some 150,000 Roma children and the failure to provide these children with adequate education. The Hungarian government even awarded Commission personel medals of merit for their "efforts" and these individuals had the gaul to accept them. Mr. Koppen is well aware of the fact that all of this wide scale state-sponsored discrimination is the result of government policy involving a Euro multi-million annual bribe to local authorities to sustain this institutional discrimination. But like his coleagues in Brussels, Koppen says nothing useful and does nothing useful on this front but says he is looking forward to leaving Hungary. He clearly wants to be out the way when the Courts start asking questions. Koppen and his colleagues abandon their work to continue to enjoy individual salares and benefits in excess of the total income of some Roma communities.