Sir, – The article "European Parliament president David Sassoli dies aged 65" (World, January 12th) pays a nice tribute to Mr Sassoli, who sadly died just a week before the end of his term of office.
He was respected by all who knew him and played a great role in ensuring that the parliament continued to carry out its legislative and other functions effectively during the extraordinary circumstances of Covid.
The article does a disservice, however, when it claims that the European Parliament’s powers are dwarfed by those of the European Commission and European Council.
This is no longer the case, especially in the legislative function, where the European Parliament does not just “amend legislation” but decides jointly on it with the EU member states in the council and has the same power as the council to reject draft laws proposed by the commission.
It also co-decides with the council on the EU annual budget and has real power as well over its longer-term budget.
This is not just an academic point.
When the direct European elections take place every five years in Ireland and in the other 26 EU member states, people are much more likely to vote if they believe that it has real powers rather than being a poor relation of the other EU institutions. – Yours, etc,
FRANCIS JACOBS,
Donnybrook,
Dublin 4.