Each year, a question is usually tabled to find out the annual total costs, and the cost per member, of the House of Commons, the House of Lords and the European Parliament. At the end of last month, the Commercial Secretary to the Treasury gave the costs as follows: HOUSE OF COMMONS Annual cost: £392m…
Last week I was in Brussels to participate in a joint parliamentary meeting of national parliamentarians and members of the European parliament to discuss Europe’s response to the challenges beyond the current crisis. The British parliament was represented by two members of the House of Lords, Lord Haskins and myself. Most of the participants were…
I spoke in a debate this evening when a colleague, Lord Trefgarne, moved a motion to annul the European Parliament (House of Lords Disqualification) Regulations 2008. The regulations arise from the fact that there is now a ban on the dual mandate for MEPs: anyone elected as an MEP cannot also sit as a member…
I shall be in Brussels tomorrow visiting the European Parliament. Most of my visits are normally in a parliamentary capacity, though this visit is primarily for academic purposes. Brussels is handy for Eurostar, though the split site for the EP (Brussels and Strasbourg), with MEPs decanting to Strasbourg for a week each month, remains a…
