SIR - Philip Bushill-Matthews MEP states that it is "member state Governments that are responsible for starting any ball rolling"with regard to EU laws, not the European Commission, simply on the basis that they signed the various EU treaties.

Much as I wish that UK governments, both Tory and Labour, had not signed the different EU treaties, Mr Bushill-Matthews is stretching a point here.

He knows full well that the Commission initiates legislation in the vast majority of cases, across a vast range of matters, and he insults the intelligence of your readers to suggest that, in doing so, the Commission is merely following instructions laid out in a narrow framework by the treaties.

If I may quote Access to the European Union by Nicholas Moussis (foreword by Mr Bushill-Matthews' old ally,

former Commissioner Chris Patten), "the Commission's role is political in so far as it chooses and prepares the ground on which the construction of the community is undertaken."

Mr Bushill-Matthews' interpretation of this process is rather like President Bush blaming Thomas Jefferson for invading Iraq.

Mind you, at least Jefferson's US Constitution was ratified. If all the European Commission does is follow the stipulations of EU treaties, perhaps Mr Bushill-Matthews could explain how and why it is currently bringing in various parts of the unratified EU Constitutional Treaty through piecemeal backdoor legislation.

MIKE NATTRASS MEP

UK Independence Party.