Headless Chicken Could Run and Run; the Collapse of the European Commission Holds New Dangers for Opponents of Closer Integration with Europe, Says Chris Gray

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The European Union has, in one memorable phrase bandied about yesterday, been decapitated.

The resignations of all 20 European Commissions means it now resembles a headless chicken, running about frantically before finally dropping dead.

Some would like to believe the corruption crisis will make the idea of more European integration as dead as the proverbial dodo.

But in fact the momentum from the crisis is running the other way.

Yesterday Conservative leader Mr William Hague was a lone voice when he argued that the correct response was to take powers away from Europe and give them back to national governments.

The rest of the talk was of giving more power to the European Parliament, creating new organisations to act as watchdogs over the Commission and most extraordinary, of increasing the number of bureaucrats working for the Commission itself.

It is impossible to overestimate the significance of this crisis for the European Union and therefore for Britain.