European Parliament: heal thyself. (European Community's governing body plagued by infighting, corruption, mismanagement)

Economist (US), The, April, 1991

Our Brussels correspondent argues that the European Parliament needs to put its house in order if it is to deserve any more power

THE parliament is often its own worst enemy. It craves more clout, yet sometimes behaves in ways that make it seem unworthy of the powers it already has: to amend some EC legislation and to approve the Community's budget. It is not just its penchant for emergency resolutions on distant events. The 518 Euro-mps, who meet for one week a month in Strasbourg, are served by a bureaucracy of 3,600 officials which costs more than 500m ecus ($600m) a year to run. Efficiency is sapped by rivalries of nationality and party politics, and by the manoeuvrings of shadowy groups such as the freemasons.

The parliament is like no other in...

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