EURO MP, Mrs Eryl McNally was demonstrating her cookery skills in Portuguese as part of a display by Britain's Labour MEPs in the Brussels parliament building last month.

The presentation, a contribution to the European Year of Languages, was the result of a concerted effort on the part of Labour's Euro MPs to learn a little of one of the many languages spoken at the European Parliament.

Mrs McNally said: "Learning languages and opening up to other cultures makes us much more effective in the European Parliament and helps us to dispel the perception of British MEPs as poor or lazy linguists."

Mrs McNally, who represents the East of England region and is fluent in French, German and Spanish, took Portuguese language classes in the parliament prior to her demonstration of bacalhau, the country's national dish which contains salt cod, potatoes and onions.

Accompanying her efforts, her colleagues attempted similar feats, reading poetry, singing and acting in their fledgling languages.

Rewarded with a certificate of her achievement, the budding chef extolled the value of learning languages for the public as a whole.

She said that the government "is putting in place considerable funding to train more language teachers, to create more specialist language schools and to install more computers in schools and colleges to assist students in their language learning."