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.
Confused? During the Lisbon referendum debate (in which most of our MEPs played a dismally inconsequential role) some Yes campaigners argued that people on the No side should find out more about Europe and its institutions. But trying to unravel the structures - never mind the workings - of the European Parliament would tax the patience of all but the most ardent Europhile.
Fianna Fáil's four MEPs are members of the Union for Europe of the Nations (UEN). Who else is in it? Apart from the Allianza Nationale, the party has members from Poland's Prawo i Sprawiedliwosc (the party founded by the Kaczynski twins) and the Polskie Stronnictwo Ludowe Piast (the Peasants' Party), plus others from Latvia, Lithuania and Denmark. The party's charter begins by stating that the UEN is "united in favour of a European Union founded on the right of peoples to express themselves by democratic means".
Fine Gael is part of the Group of the European People's Party and European Democrats. Members include Forza Italia and other centre-right parties such as the British Conservatives and Germany's Christian Democrats. They "want a Europe which creates opportunity and wealth within a single market, competitive at world level, and which at the same time promotes the wellbeing of everybody, not only in Europe, but also in the rest of the world".
Independent Marian Harkin sits with the Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe which includes Britain's Liberal Democrats, the Dutch Democraten 66, Sweden's Folkpartiet Liberalerna and Bulgaria's Hyusmenova Filiz Hakaeva. They "stand for individual liberty, a free and dynamic business culture, economic and social solidarity, sustainability in taking actions, protection of the environment, and respect and tolerance for cultural, religious and linguistic diversity".
Mary Lou McDonald is a member of an outfit called Confederal Group of the European United Left - Nordic Green Left. Sinn Féin's allies include MEPs from the Communist parties of France, Italy, Portugal and Greece and, just to add a bit of variety, Denmark's Socialist Peoples' Party.
Kathy Sinnott, the Independent MEP from Munster, is co-president of a 22-strong Independence/Democracy Group which comprises the United Kingdom Independence Party and mavericks from seven other countries. They oppose the Lisbon Treaty and the creation of a European superstate but favour co-operation between sovereign states.
Proinsias De Rossa is alone in keeping the Irish red flag flying in the Party of European Socialists, whose members include Gordon Brown's troops from Britain, the SDLP and traditional socialist parties from across the continent.
The complex permutations involving Ireland's 13 MEPs pale into insignificance compared to the stupefying task of tracking the cross-pollination of all 785 members. In 2006 (the most recent full-year figures available) the European Parliament's budget was €1.32 billion, of which nearly half went on salaries for almost 6,000 administrative staff. In 2007, for the 13th consecutive year, the European Court of Auditors refused to approve the EU's budget.
After the Lisbon setback, a number of political voices suggested that the operation of the EU should be made "simpler" and more relevant to people's lives. A good way to start would be to eliminate this costly, pompous, unworkable and unfathomable 22-language Tower of Babel, which begins its monthly session in Strasbourg this evening. There's no reason why all legislative proposals made by the European Commission can't simply be circulated for scrutiny and comment to the various national parliaments - including the Oireachtas.
Despite direct elections, the reality is that dangerously few Irish people - even party political activists - seem to know much about, or understand, how the European Parliament works.
Or care less. The unpalatable truth is that most European heads of government seem to privately share this disdain. It is time, for Europe's sake, to shut it down.