Letter to the Scotsman

Sir,

Your correspondent Mary Rolls incorrectly asserts that "of course the European Parliament does not make the laws that now control practically every aspect of our lives" and that "the European Parliament  may, though rarely does, amend the commission's decisions, directives and regulations but only after a complicated process of horse-trading with the commission and the council, advised by COREPER (Committee of Permanent Representatives of EU member states), a powerful but little-known body composed of mandarins from 27 countries." This is simply untrue.

Every revision of the Treaties has seen an increase in the power of the European Parliament in relation to the other institutions. Today the European Parliament is firmly established as a co-legislator. The codecision procedure gives the same weight to the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union on a wide range of areas (for example, transport, the environment and consumer protection). Two thirds of European laws are adopted jointly by the European Parliament and the Council.

Commission President Barroso acknowledged this week that a great deal of legislation adopted in the last five years "bears the European Parliament's stamp", listing areas such as climate change, energy security, security and freedom, and the internal market.   

On 4 June 2009, Scottish voters will have a unique opportunity to go to polls along with 375 million fellow European voters to elect both the world’s only directly elected transnational and multilingual parliament, and the EU’s only directly elected institution. I hope they will do so.

Yours sincerely,

Catherine Stihler, Labour MEP for Scotland