Political cosmetics

Charles Grant argues in a recent paper for the CER that member states' confidence in the Commission is diminishing because it proposes too many detailed rules in areas such as environment, food safety and social policy. Moreover, this tendency is being strengthened by a European Parliament in thrall to lobbies and NGOs which "find it quite easy to get MEPs to support their projects for new EU rules". Grant says the Parliament puts pressure for new laws on underemployed European commissioners who happily oblige to avoid trouble. His solution is for governments to agree to appoint a political heavyweight as Commission President and to cut the number of commissioners.