Daniel Hannan points us in the direction of this FT article from 2 April.

“Only one in 20 of the 785 MEPs can lay claim to at least a decade in business, while 86 per cent have no experience of any duration…

Only four of the 27 European commissioners claim any business experience and, in each case, this was of less than five years’ duration.”

Daniel admits that he too has no experience of business. But then he says

“let me enter a plea of mitigation. I never presume to tell businesses what to do. Over nine years in the European Parliament, I have never once proposed a new law or a new regulation. I have voted consistently against measures that would burden companies or reduce consumer choice. If only all my colleagues could say the same.”

Which, if accurate (update: see Jon’s comment to this post), seems a fair response.

Daniel identifies the issue as being

“…that many MEPs see legislation as chiefly declamatory: an opportunity to signal that they care about something, to “send out a message”. Never having worked in the private sector, they literally cannot imagine the impact that their rules will have on small firms operating within tight profit margins: not just the straight compliance costs, but the hassle, the record-keeping, the mornings off to show the inspector round.”

This is certainly one of the problems. But one has to acknowledge that it’s very difficult to summon the evidence to fight against over-regulation. Various academics have tried to quantify the impact of red tape on business (particularly the Dutch), but unintended consequences are by their very nature unpredictable.

Hence a law-maker can easily say “this will be the beneficial effect of my proposed law, ain’t it grand?”, but opponents have a hard time pointing out the possible risks.

In other words, it’s easier making a law than not making a law.

Daniel Hannan says MEPs can no longer milk the EU dry.

“I’ve watched it happen: someone is elected on a more-or-less Eurosceptic platform but, as his lips clamp around the allowances teat, he finds all sorts of arguments for closer integration. Aware that his own house is made of flimsy crystal, the last thing he’ll do is lob stones at the fraud-ridden EU budget. Clever, no?”

Indeed. I would only point out that MEPs weren’t actually millking the EU dry, since there’s always plenty of money to go round as long as you’re creative enough.

And whether the practices will stop or simply evolve is another question. I don’t see the proposed changes to accounting requirements necessarily cleaning up Parliament.