16-03-2006, 01:34 PM
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#1 (permalink)
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Uber Member
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Woking
Posts: 30,604
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Eastern Counties MEP calls for EU to ask for "less mone
http://www.ukip.org/ukip_news/gen12.php?t=1&id=1984
Quote:
In a speech to the European Parliament on the EU’s 2007 budgetary guidelines, made on Tuesday 14th March, the Eastern Counties UKIP MEP, Jeffrey Titford has called for the EU to ask for “less money, not more”.
He was also severely critical of the Prime Minister for squandering Mrs Thatcher’s “hard earned rebate” in what he described as “the great give away”. The major political parties in Britain were also criticised for failing to openly debate on European issues at election time. Mr Titford called it “the elephant in the room that everybody avoids talking about”. He went on to call for the EU to carry out a study on how it could “return the powers it has taken from democratically elected national governments”.
Mr Titford described the budgetary guidelines as a “glorified wish list full of meaningless buzz phrases”.
Notes:
The full text of Mr Titford’s speech to the European Parliament in Strasbourg is below
Speech on the guidelines for the 2007 budget procedure – Strasbourg 14.3.06
Mr President
As a British citizen, I strongly oppose the budget settlement that Mr Tony Blair purports to suggest that he ‘negotiated’ in December. I prefer to call it the ‘great give away’. Opening your cheque book and asking ‘how much’ is not my idea of negotiation. Allowing Britain’s contribution to rise from an average of £3 billion net to more than £6 billion per annum from 2007, is totally unacceptable and squanders Mrs Thatcher’s hard earned rebate.
I, therefore, voted against acceptance of the budget when it came before this Parliament. I suspect that my reasons were somewhat different to those of most of the other members of this institution, who also voted against it!
No major political party in my country, except my own, is prepared to honestly and openly campaign on European issues at election times. It is the famous elephant in the room that everybody avoids talking about. They are helped by a supine media that is only too willing to participate in what is, effectively, a cover-up.
Mr Blair and his Government may think themselves very clever in avoiding a proper debate on the EU at the last General Election. However, there is a downside. How can they legitimately claim to have a mandate for giving away all this extra taxpayers' money, most of which will be used to subsidise projects in Eastern European countries, at the expense of under-funding our own domestic infrastructure?
Mr President, I have looked at the guidelines in this report and most of it is just a glorified wish list, full of meaningless buzz phrases like ‘European Heart’ and ‘Raising the Game’. In my view, if the EU really is interested in raising its game, it could start by asking for less money, not more and it should initiate a major study of the means necessary to return the powers it has taken from democratically elected governments.
That’s my wish list.
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