European Parliament is unlawful

There would be public outrage. Lawyers would warn that as the House was unlawfully constituted all its acts could be null and void.

In fact the European Parliament is presently in just such an unlawful state, and has been since December 1 last year when the Treaty of Lisbon came into force.

Under Article 14(2) of the Treaty on European Union as now amended by Lisbon, "No member state shall be allocated more than 96 seats."

Yet there still 99 German MEPs, as under the previous rules, and as an indirect result 18 MEPs elected in 12 other countries are being denied admission.

Rather than insisting on the obvious remedy that Germany should reduce its delegation by three members in line with the amended treaty, EU leaders have belatedly opted to make further changes to the treaty to permit the three surplus Germans to remain in the Parliament, and incidentally to also allow the 18 other MEPs to finally take their seats.

A protocol to make these amendments was signed on June 23, but will not come into force until this December 1 at the earliest, provided that it has been ratified by all member states.

So for at least a year the European Parliament will have been unlawfully constituted, and consequently all its acts during that period will be open to legal challenge.

And once again our government has said nothing about these blatant illegalities, showing its own disregard for the rule of law within the EU.

Dr Cooper Maidenhead