The good and the bad

Each year the European Court of Justice publishes the details of which countries have received judgments against them for failing to implement EU directives: who the good Europeans are and who are the bad. Before looking at the list, try to guess who the best and worst Europeans are. You may be in for a surprise.

Here it is

Belgium 9
Italy 8
Portugal 8
Spain 7
France 6
Germany 5
Greece 4

The best Europeans included the UK, Denmark, Slovakia and Latvia: no cases against any of them.

From 2007-11 the worst Europeans were the Italians, with 66 cases lost, followed by Spain, France and Germany.

It seems the countries which talk most about the need for further integration and the importance of being communautaire are the ones worst at it.

'The more they talked of their honour, the faster we counted the spoons'.