Ms Catherine Day:

Because we are sophisticated countries and economies dealing with highly complex problems, inevitably the detail of the policy-making is highly technical. However, I think we have become lost in the fog of the technical issues and have failed to explain to people in clearer terms the reason we are doing all of this. Why does it matter, for example, if a country's national budget is out of line or it is doing things that are harmful to the neighbours? Everyone can understand that is not a good situation in which to be, but we do not manage to describe it in that way. I really think this is where the national parliaments have a role, which in a way is to be a transformative body that has the capacity to understand and follow the technical stuff but then has the capacity to explain to the man or woman in the street the reason we are doing this and not, as we tend to respond from Brussels, with an outpouring of alphabet soup jargon and technicalities of process. While that is necessary to deliver the results, we should be explaining the issues on which we are working. That is where we really-----