Straw says abolish the European Parliament

Former Foreign Secretary Jack Straw called for the abolition of the European Parliament at an event organised by IPPR today. According to the Guardian, Straw said:

“I am now clear that there is a major democratic deficit within the EU. And it is absolutely certain, in my judgment, that the mechanism that was established 30 years ago to fill this gap of the democratic deficit, which was a directly elected European parliament, has not worked and, in my judgment, cannot work in that form. And the paradox is that as the European parliament has been given more powers it has become less, not more, legitimate and that is shown by the drop in the average [election] turnout across Europe.”