MEPs should play more golf to aid the economy

On Tuesday, MEPs got a ticking off from Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the European Commission. It was disgraceful, the irritable Luxembourger told us, that so few of us had shown up to listen to the prime minister of Malta – who has just finished his term as holder of one of the EU’s numerous presidencies.

The speaker of the European Parliament interrupted, asking him to use more respectful language. It was, he said, for the parliament to hold the commission to account, not the other way around.

Juncker snapped back that MEPs were idiotic, and that he had no intention of turning up himself any more. It’s certainly true that MEPs are patchy attenders – except at the noon voting session, when they have to be present in order to claim their €300 (£266) allowance. But it’s not true that they are lazy.

Frankly, the world might be a better place if they really were the idlers of popular imagination. Far too much legislation emanates from the EU. If MEPs simply clocked in for their generous allowances, and then withdrew to play golf, Europe’s economies might be more competitive. The trouble is that MEPs’ consciences kick in. They want to show that they are doing something in return for their expenses. So they start looking for new things to harmonise: the treatment of circus animals, say, or the management of eels in estuaries. Thus does the power of the EU keep growing.

Despite this week’s spat, there is little tension between the parliament and commission. Both start from the proposition that, whatever the question, the answer is “more Europe”.

Far from the legislature controlling the executive, the legislature and executive are united against public opinion.

The ultimate faux pas is to remind MEPs that they are not in line with their voters when it comes to expanding Brussels’ jurisdiction. I made a speech the other day urging MEPs to do less. A portly German Leftist shrieked and gibbered and, as I sat down, leapt to his feet to demand that I be sanctioned.

In theory, MEPs see themselves as the representatives of a united European demos. In practice, they can become quite agitated when it is suggested that they become properly representative.