Academic Perspectives

The weekend is a good opportunity to escape from some of the glib, superficial coverage of the European Parliament in our press and to look at what the academic world is saying.

One piece that caught my eye was The Myth of Europe's 'Democratic Deficit' by Prof. Andrew Moravcsik of Princeton University, USA, which is a good antidote to some of the wilder claims by Eurosceptics. I don’t always agree with Andy, but his articles are always thought provoking and well worth a read.

I was also flattered to see that Professor Juliet Lodge of the Jean Monnet Centre names me in an article as one of five MEPs who 'have brought the European Parliament from being a mere talking shop to a legislature with genuine power'. Of course, there are many who have been involved in the long battle to make sure that no EU legislation can be adopted without parliamentary approval, thereby making the EU based not just on inter-governmental co-operation, but on parliamentary democracy. But in recent years, she says, five have stood out: 'The first three are the co-ordinators of the three largest political groups (and have led their Groups on these matters for a decade). They have thus negotiated on behalf of their Groups virtually all of the positions adopted by the Parliament on these issues over the last decade. They have at the same time taken on several other key roles, notably key rapporteurships. It is striking that two of the three are British - Andrew Duff and Richard Corbett.'

Maybe – but it is worth recalling that none of the treaty changes we have put forward could come into force without the approval of each and every national parliament.