'Rather powerless' EU Parliament President

History surely has something to teach us about powerful German's who claim they lack authority? Listen to the interview at 0718 this morning on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme when Dr Hans-Gert Poettering, President of the European Parliament, German Christian Democrat MEP and recently head of the EPP group to which David Cameron's Conservative Party STILL belongs, claims powerlessness, when asked at the LSE yesterday evening about releasing the report on MEP expenses fraud, for which a Labour MEP claims he has the full ability and responsibility, from the Listen Again facility(starts about 16 minutes into the clip), linked here. A brief extract: "I cannot take the decision just to please you................... ..........its not my decision, I might have influence but am rather powerless"