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Abolishing this costly and pompous institution would be a good start in rebuilding faith in the EU, writes Michael Parsons.

LAST APRIL, Italy held a general election to elect the country's 62nd government since the end of the second World War. The "comeback kid", Silvio Berlusconi, returned to power courtesy of Il Popolo della Libertà - a new political force he created by merging his Forza Italia party with the Allianza Nationale. But the merger doesn't appear to have extended to the European Parliament where the original Italian parties remain cosily ensconced in contradictory alliances with both Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael.