Euro Biz

Every Friday afternoon at newsdirect

We await in suspense and with bated breath

An email as long as it is indeterminable:

The European Parliamentary business schedule

At this labyrinth legislature, everything’s on the table

From the niche and provincial to the global and high-level

On each issue an “exchange of views” or a “state of play”;

Our team scans the lot and sends it your way

From cattle tags in Denmark to Russian propaganda

The use of sweeteners in bakeries to fisheries memoranda

Whether it’s tackling Jihadism or the licensing of yachts

These Brussels bureaucrats consider the lot

But that’s not meant as a dig or to sound Eurosceptic

The politics of Spanish table olives can get pretty hectic

Whatever your view on Brexit, Greece, Juncker or Nigel

One things seems clear: these diplomats ain’t idle

Sometimes, though, you wish they’d cut the jargon

                                           And stick to issues like emissions of carbon                                          

Or human rights in Yemen and fighting anti-gypsyism

Rather than the effectiveness of the reciprocity mechanism