Less use than a discarded teabag...

While the foreign ministers of the EU member states – or their deputies – sit down in Brussels in order not to come to a decision on anything, life goes on.

The mighty arm of Brussels reaches out, according to The Times this morning to ban the recycling of Cardiff teabags under its notorious Animal By-products Directive.

As the Times gleefully admits, this is definitely an EU story straight of the "straight banana" variety and I am sure the EU commission will be rushing our with a defence of its Directive, blaming the silliness on over-zealous local officials.

But, as my colleague recently remarked, who cares?

What is possibly significant, however, is that the commission response will be speedier than its response to the tsunami disaster demonstrating that, when it comes to the expenditure of human energy, the EU has its own priorities.

Perhaps we could sent the discarded teabags (57.2 billion each year) to Sri Lanka. They would certainly be more use there than the EU.