MikePadgett.com

Celebrating bureaucracy?

— Foot in mouth: another clumsy Commission communication.”

Opponents of the European Union are fond of pointing out what they see as the three grand negatives: democratic deficit, lack of transparency and unwieldy bureaucracy.

Brussels certainly doesn’t do itself any favours with the famously poor quality of its communications, particularly when it makes the occasional, but always highly visible foot-in-mouth blunder.

Take the banner above, seen recently on the Charlemagne Building next to Rue de la Loi-Wetstraat. Announcing the EU’s Sustainable Energy Week, it looks inocuous enough from a distance, but these are the people who brought us Entropa.

Detractors who perceive the European process as expensive, bureaucratic and agonisingly slow need simply take a closer look:

Twist the words of this strapline and you have all the ammunition you need!