Life in the fast lane

Date: 20/06/1996

Commissioner Marcelino Oreja was a man in a hurry on the way back from a Culture Council in Luxembourg the other day.

While the rest of the world dutifully waited in line in a traffic jam thanks to the usual summer time road works, Oreja's green Jaguar, all lights flashing, zoomed up the hard shoulder normally reserved for broken down vehicles and the emergency services.

Records do not reveal any world-shattering event that Oreja was anxious not to miss, unless, perhaps, there was a good American film on the television that night which did not fall foul of his quota requirements.

Perhaps the time has come for EU motorways to include a Eurocrat lane to avoid any danger of our leaders getting too close to their citizens.