As if it is not enough that record companies try to control when you and I can listen to what music and on which device, now meddlesome Meglena Kouneva wants to control at what volume we can enjoy our music.

All of this is for our own good, of course. Kouneva’s latest coup to run the personal lives of 500 million European citizens is defended with data from scientific research.

According to the research quoted by Kouneva, even after exposure to loud music for more than an hour a day, every single day for a period of at least five years, no measurable permanent hearing damage occurs in 90 to 95 per cent of listeners.

Looking at the data this way, it is easy to defend a conclusion that Kouneva’s data proves that the current volume limitations on music players are perfectly harmless for the vast majority of listeners, and are only potentially harmful to a minute minority. One could even be excused for relegating the "loud music damages your ears" mantra to the same corner of scientifically unsupported wisdom that says that reading in low light damages your eyesight or that masturbation leads to blindness.

But Kouneva, whose term as EU Commissioner is about to end with no prospect of prolongation, sees a potential minority that could be made to be perceived as under threat, and so, in good left-wing political tradition, she thrusts herself onto the stage as The Protector of that minority.

According to Kouneva, up to 10 million European citizens could be affected by hearing loss because of loud music. She does not say how she arrives at this number, but if we take 10 million to be five per cent of those who listen to loud music, we see that Kouneva estimates that 200 million Europeans or 40 per cent of the entire EU population including infants, the elderly and the deaf, listen to loud music for more than an hour on a daily basis, a habit they are assumed to keep up for at least five years.

In a discussion on the Apple product forums, user AndrewElla, who is from the UK, posted the following comment in April 2008; "I have just been given a Nano and am very disappointed with the volume level. I listen mainly to classical music and even in a relatively quiet room, I need the volume level on or near max. I cannot hear the music on the train or walking down the street, even on max."

In the words of another user, TheGauge, in his reply in the same discussion, in Kouneva’s world consumers are muppets, incapable of understanding when the volume on their music player is too loud or of making educated decisions about accepting the consequences of their behaviour.

The line between protecting consumer rights and violating personal sovereignty and freedom should be clear enough even for a meddlesome muppet.