THE EU Directive on Working Time, and Minister of State for Labour Affairs, Ms Eithne Fitzgerald's bill to incorporate the directive into national law, created plenty of comment during the week. In Britain some politicians were close to apoplexy when the European Court of Justice ruled that they, too, must implement the dastardly Euro law. Commissioner Padraig Flynn made the front page of the Financial Times, over his quote that Britain's demands for an opt out from the Mr Padraig Flynn working hours rules would be "unaccept upsetting the British able" to the Commission and the other 14 member states. The paper, in its editorial comment, said there was a "dangerous tendency in continental Europe" to favour regulation over competition, and that Mr Flynn, the social affairs commissioner, "too often sees harmonisation as an end in itself".

However, the paper reserved its most severe criticism for Mr Major and the British government, saying their bellicose response to the court's judgement would only serve to weaken Britain's voice in Europe.

The President of the Commission, Mr Jacques Santer, hit out on Thursday against a member state, unnamed, which favoured a "sweatshop"

economy and refused to face up to its responsibilities over the BSE debacle. Mow I wonder which member state he was referring to?