Is the European Parliament powerful or not?

8.21.35am BST (GMT +0100) Mon 1st Jun 2009

Richard Laming of Federal Union asks the above question saying that "A combination of the expenses scandal in Westminster and the European parliamentary elections is producing a strange outcome in the newspapers. On the one hand, we are told that the European elections don't matter much, that the turnout on 4 June will be low and deservedly so. On the other hand, we are told that MPs have been abusing expenses because they don't have anything else to do, now that all their power has gone to the European Union."

Read more at http://www.federalunion.org.uk/blog/2009/05/is-european-parliament-powerful-or-not.html