What the BBC doesn't know about our man in Brussels Considering how keen the BBC is on our belonging to the EU, it never ceases to amaze me how remarkably little it understands about the object of its devotion. Interviewing our new EU commissioner, Lord Hill, about the row over David Cameron's vain refusal to pay Brussels that extra £1.7 billion, John Humphrys seemed surprised when Hill explained that it was not his role to fight Cameron's corner, because "my job is to act as a European Commissioner on behalf of all the 28 members." Mr Humphrys should tuck up in bed with Article 27 of the Treaty on European Union, which would tell him that commissioners are not there to represent the interests of the country they come from. Their loyalty can be only to "Europe," and they must neither "seek nor take instruction from any government." In other words, Lord Hill is already house-trained to obey the rule that Commission officials must never speak of "countries," least of all their own: only of "member states." If pushed, they may reluctantly refer to their homeland as "the country I know best." All of which, of course, is becoming rather embarrassing for the Commission's new president, Jean-Claude Juncker, from Luxembourg. We've learnt that, in the 17 years he was its prime minister, his government presided over a huge international tax-avoidance scam. This allows some 300 global companies, such as Amazon, Pepsi and Ikea, to minimise their tax liabilities by paying tax on all the hundreds of billions they earn across Europe only in "the country he knows best."