04/07/2017 (Agence Europe) – The President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, condemned the attitude of the members of the European Parliament as “ridiculous”, when barely 30 of their number attended the plenary session debate of the Parliament on the morning of Tuesday 4 July on the results of the Maltese Presidency of the Council of the EU of the first half of 2017. In an attempt to defend the assembly he represents, the Parliament's President, Antonio Tajani, asked Juncker to respect the European institution that oversees the Commission. If the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, or the French President, Emmanuel Macron, had been here, the hemicycle would have been full, Juncker said, under the approving gaze of the Maltese Prime Minister, Joseph Muscat, himself a former MEP. (MB)