JIM O'BRIEN,
Sir, - I refer to Chris Dooley's report "Nice roadshow still draws many negative reviews" (The Irish Times, January 16th).
It is reported that a member of the public who spoke at the National Forum on Europe at Waterford last Monday and who introduced himself as a "British subject" suggested, inter alia, that the European Parliament has little power or relevance. May I, through your columns, assure this citizen of the European Union that Parliament has extensive legislative, budgetary and supervisory powers which it uses to considerable effect in the interests of all EU citizens.
Working jointly with the Council of Ministers, the European Parliament now enacts most EU laws and establishes the annual EU budget. It supervises the European Commission as it implements EU policies and spends EU funds and insists on the highest standards in these respects (as the demise of the Santer Commission amply demonstrated).
On the other hand, Parliament agrees with this speaker's view that the EU "is simply not democratic enough". Parliament therefore continues to work unrelentingly to ensure that citizens have access to the fullest information on all EU matters, that EU procedures be simplified and made fully transparent, that all legislative decisions of the Council be made in public and that the entire EU budget be brought under joint Council/Parliament control. - Yours, etc.,
JIM O'BRIEN, Head of Office, European Parliament, Molesworth Street, Dublin 2.