“I haven’t figured out how to get people interested,” he said, before saying grace, digging into a lunch of sandwiches and meatball soup and taking questions on milk quotas and European rules for disposing of cow dung. “It’s difficult to explain what we do.”…

The Parliament’s members enjoy $350 per diems, a $5,000 annual budget for nonwork travel and up to $9,000 per year for language and computer classes. Members pay 22% income tax, well below what most Europeans must pay. Upon leaving office, members receive a “transitional” payment: a month’s salary for every year served. That’s five months’ pay for a one-term parliamentarian.