, Columnist
Will Toilet Rules Prove EU's Waterloo?
Blog on proposed EU standards for toilets
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One reason parties hostile to the European Union's integration will do well in next year's election to the European Parliament is that the bloc's central bureaucracy is so wasteful and intrusive. This year, for example, it produced more than 100 pages of research and specifications to standardize toilet flushes.
According to the Times of London, the research cost 89,300 euros ($122,000). Working groups established that Germany has the most toilets, with 69 million of them. It is followed by the U.K. and, somewhat surprisingly, Spain, which, although 25 percent less populous, also has about 35 million toilets. A domestic toilet's average life span was found to be 12.5 years. Who knew?