A Twitter storm blows up. The European Parliament’s ‘Brexit Chief’ Guy Verhofstadt accuses Nigel Farage of being a fifth columnist.

Like all Twitter storms it quickly gives way to the next one. But if you have five minutes to spare listen to the original speech. Not tweeted as a soundbite, not reported in the media. But straight from Guy Verhofstadt taking part in a parliamentary debate on the Future of Europe. (He quickly reverts to English.)

It’s a strong speech. In five minutes there are several soundbites – ‘The new world order needs a new Europe…what we need is not more, or less, it’s new.’ But there’s a problem, around Europe a circle of evil “Putin, Erdogan, and on a bad day – and that’s every day at the moment – even Trump”.

And within Europe a fifth column.

Let’s be honest. I call them the cheerleaders of Putin – Farage, Le Pen, Wilders. They were doing only one thing. They take the money from the Kremlin. They take the intelligence of the Kremlin. Like Mr Arron Banks, for example, the friend of Mr Farage. Who has colluded, in fact, and who helped, with the help of the Russians, to have the Brexit. It’s time that we stop this co-operation.

That’s what made the headlines, the last minute of the speech. Reaction was swift. “Euroskeptic campaign group Leave.EU has accused Guy Verhofstadt of ‘rancid fake news’ and called for him to be ‘locked up,’ after the MEP claimed the group’s founder, Arron Banks, had ‘colluded’ with Russia on Brexit,” is how Politico reported part of the fall-out.

But what’s more important is the subject of the debate ‘ The Future of Europe’ – and, indeed, the fact of the parliament itself.  How many UK voters – Remain or Leave – know how the European Parliament works? How many of us know about the debates broadcast on parliament tv and available on YouTube? .Or that there is an ongoing discussion developing about how to reform the EU the eurozone but also the institutions as a whole.

Verhofstadt, a former Belgian premier, (1999-2008) and current leader of the ALDE (Liberal) group in the European Parliament, is Flemish – and a federalist, all in keeping with the Belgian political settlement but anathema to Brexiters. It is said he has ambitions to be European Commission president post-Juncker and he certainly maintains a high media profile but ALDE is too small to provide a winning Spitzenkandidat.

If you have five more minutes to spare it’s also worth watching another video clip – if only to challenge the view, of Brexiters and Lexiters alike, that the European Council is not democratically accountable. Here is Verhofstadt again: this time speaking on the urgent need to reform EU migration policy. To change the Dublin System (the EU law that requires refugees to seek asylum in the first European country they reach).

When, for God’s sake, will the European Council take a decision on this migration issue and when will you take your responsibility… The Mediterranean has become the biggest graveyard in Europe. I will not point my finger to individual countries. Not to Malta, not to Italy, but to all EU Governments. This is a collective responsibility! For already two years, European leaders have failed to agree to reform our common European asylum system. Ultimately we have to bring the Council to Court for “failure to act”.

It’s a brief glimpse of the enormity of the challenges for European countries but also evidence that there is democracy at work. But who makes time to see it? And are Europe’s leaders up to the task of reforming the EU so that it can better withstand the assaults from within and without on democracy and the liberal order?

Verhofstadt is a regular contributor to socialeurope.eu as here