By Richard Laming
Published in The Observer, 2 May 2004
Giving more power for the European Parliament need not be at the expense of national parliaments (Comment, last week).
What about all those forces outside the scope of any kind of democratic control? Multinational corporations, international criminals and international bureaucracies are all getting away with things.
National parliaments can never exercise control over these entities, but the European Union and its directly elected parliament can. Thisis a further reason to vote yes in the referendum on the European constitution.
Richard Laming
Director, Federal Union