SIR - J Butterfield kindly invites me to respond to his further letter of June 10 (MEPs nod through laws made in the EU) in which he asserts that the Commission starts the ball rolling on EU legislation, makes it water-tight, and then passes it to the European Parliament who can only debate it and cannot change it. I am pleased to reassure him that none of this is correct.

The basis for all EU legislation are the various treaties signed by the heads of governments of the 25 member states. The commission's role is simply to act as "guardian of the treaties", and to propose legislation which would give legal life to the agreements signed up to in the treaties. It is therefore member state Governments that are responsible for starting any ball rolling.

However, every such "ball" is initially only a proposal. It is the council and the European Parliament that have the joint powers to decide whether to accept, to modify or indeed to dump it. The commission has no votes, hence my earlier comment that "Brussels" could not impose EU laws.

The most vivid proof of the Parliament's powers came only a few weeks ago with a proposed services directive, designed to clear the way for service companies in one country to do business in another. The commission proposal was universally condemned, and the council could not see a way forward. It was left to the Parliament - led in this instance by my West Midlands colleague Malcolm Harbour MEP - to completely rebuild the original proposal - it is this work that will now form the basis of the new legislation.

PHILIP BUSHILL-MATTHEWS

MEP European Parliament, Brussels