Politician fined $4,000 for saying the EU president has 'the charisma of the damp rag and the appearance of a bank clerk' Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2205131/Nigel-Farage-Politician-fined-4-000-saying-EU-president-charisma-damp-rag.

Fined: Nigel Farage was forced to give up $4,000- the equivalent of 10-days pay- for insulting an EU politician during a floor speech

By Daily Mail Reporter 
How much does it cost to tell the one of the EU's top officials he has 'the charisma of a damp rag?'
About 3,000 euro, or close to $4,000, as a European member of Parliament has discovered.
In 2010, Nigel Farage, the leader of the United Kingdom's Independence Party and anti-European Union member of the EU Parliament, rose following a speech by Herman Van Rompuy, the president of the European Council.
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As Mr Van Rompuy listened, Mr Farage, added that the former Belgian prime minister came from 'pretty much a non-country.'
The Parliament docked Mr Farage 2,980 euro, which is the equivalent of 10 days'
expenses.
Mr Farage appealed to the European Court of Justice but it ruled this month that he filed his appeal too late and would also have to pay Parliament's legal expenses.

 The decision was posted on the court's website on Monday.

The penalty comes two years after the supposed wrong doing, when Mr Farage gave a theatrical speech in the European parliament in February 2010, and he went from discussing the appointment of Mr von Rompuy and dissecting his qualifications starting with his credentials and critiquing his appearance.
‘I'm sorry but... and I don't want to be rude, but you know really, you have the charisma of a damp rag and the appearance of a low-grade bank clerk,’ he said.

The sparring: The insult took place during a session of the European Parliament when Mr Farage (left) questioned Mr von Rompuy's (right) appointment

‘I sense though that you're competent and capable and dangerous, and I have no doubt that it’s your intention to be the quiet assassin of European democracy and the European nation state.
‘You appear to have a loathing for the very concept of the existence of nation states- perhaps that's because you come from Belgium which of course is pretty much a non-country.’
Shortly after the incident, the president of the European Parliament Jerzy Buzek met with Mr Farage and made a statement explaining that the matter was not one of free speech but simply common courtesy.
'I defend absolutely Mr Farage's right to disagree about the policy or institutions of the Union, but not to personally insult our guests in the European Parliament or the country from which they may come,' he said in a statement at the time.
'I am disappointed by Mr Farage's behaviour, which sits ill with the great parliamentary tradition of his own country. I cannot accept this sort of behaviour in the European Parliament. I invited him to apologize, but he declined to do so. I have therefore - as an expression of the seriousness of the matter - rescinded his right to ten days' daily allowance as a Member.'

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