28-11-2004, 01:04 AM
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#1 (permalink)
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Administrator
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Long Ashton, Bristol
Posts: 10,097
Party: None
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What are we MEPs good for? Only sticking together, it seems
Telegraph Opinion
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How have we MEPs reacted to the revelation that Jacques Barrot, the EU's new transport commissioner, had a criminal conviction in a party funding scandal? Have we fearlessly discharged our duties as the people's tribunes? Have we refused to countenance having a commissioner who did not declare his record? Did we tell Commissioner Barrot to hit the road, Jacques?
Not a bit of it. The past week has witnessed some nauseating scenes, as MEPs rushed to ingratiate themselves with the new commissioners. As soon as the Commission President, Jose Manuel Barroso, reconfirmed his confidence in his team, European party leaders queued to congratulate them. Forget the rhetoric about the parliament "coming of age" and "standing up to the executive". It is back to business as usual, with legislature and executive backing each other against a sceptical public.
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And it ends with:
Quote:
There you have it. As far as MEPs are concerned, it is all right to have supported a totalitarian regime, to have been convicted in a corruption case or, indeed, to be an evident dullard with no knowledge of your portfolio. What is not all right is to support the supremacy of national parliaments. Dolts, shysters, reds and retreads are welcome. But someone who believes that nations should set their own taxes? That would be going too far.
Daniel Hannan is a Conservative MEP
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