Giving a whole new meaning to the Euroland ‘gravy train’

Date: 17/12/1998

Ritt 'ice maiden' Bjerregaard appears to be thawing out after four years in charge of environmental policy in the Commission.

The Danish Commissioner has recently taken to using extended food metaphors to explain the perplexities of the Union. “You can compare the EU to a man in a restaurant,” she said recently. “There is a large menu, but it is not a buffet table where you can choose whatever you like. You can take the internal market as a starter and the structural funds as a main course, but you can't stop there. You have to go through the whole menu.”

So much for Europe à la carte, bloated diners might remark.