THE latest promotional video from Brussels shows European citizens engaged in enthusiastic congress, but it is not the sort of union the founding fathers had in mind.

The film, available on the European commission’s space on YouTube, the video website, shows 18 couples having sex.

The video opens with a man and woman ripping each other’s clothes off in the bedroom while bottles rattle on a shelf. In the interests of sexual equality, two of the couples are gay.

In an attempt at humour that might go down better in Belgium than in Britain, the film climaxes with quivering bedheads and loud orgasms. It closes with the line: “Let’s come together.”

The video is part of a campaign by Margot Wallstrom, the communications commissioner, to boost interest in the workings of the EU. Other videos among the 44 posted on the website cover the reform of the common market organisation for sugar and the EU’s antifraud office.

But it is the video entitled Film Lovers Will Love This that is attracting most attention.

The scenes were compiled by the commission’s press unit, using footage from Amélie and All About My Mother. Both films were supported by the EU.

Wallstrom’s spokesman was initially unaware of the video’s presence on the site and denied it was in questionable taste.

“This is not pornography,” he said as the video started, but he appeared less sure as he watched it. “Well, what can I say? It’s a question of taste. It doesn’t always have to be about press releases. These clips explain better what the EU is doing.”

But he added: “We can’t really compete with Paris Hilton yet.”

An internet sex video set Hilton on the road to fame, but the EU’s efforts have prompted ridicule.

Maciej Giertych, an MEP with the conservative League of Polish Families, accused the EU of using “immoral methods” to promote itself.

But Godfrey Bloom, a UK Independence party MEP, said: “I suppose this film is appropriate. The EU has been screwing Britain for the past 30 years.”

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