Strasbourg
Commentary Plenary session 20 - 23 May 2013
I have to tell
you that things go on here much as before. There is no sign of
collapse, yet, and the problems of the Euro have not surfaced, unless
that happens after I have completed this edition.
However, there
were debates on fraud and tax havens as well as further legislation
on the EMU. Here you should see Godfrey's contribution on the UKIP
MEP's website.
Tuesday
Voting included a report to alter the date of the next Euro
elections due next year. MEPs voted to change the dates from the
first week in June to May. But this is against EU law, as explained
by Stuart Agnew MEP,-
Euro election
date changed to suit holidays of sun-lounging Germans.
UKIP Press
Release
Tuesday 21st May
2013. Immediate.
The EU is
breakings its own laws to change Euro elections from June to May next
year. The law says it may be changed if to have it in June 2014 is
"impossible".
The reasons
advanced by EU Parliament for changing date is that it was to
facilitate election of new European Commission and it clashed with
German holidays.
UKIP MEP
Stuart Agnew for Eastern England said,
"The EU is
acting against its own laws and leaves the decision to change the
date open to legal challenge in the courts. It betrays itself as a
tyranny rather than an institution under the rule of law.
It is quite
ridiculous that the date of the European Elections would be changed
for the reasons that German holidaymakers wish to spread their beach
towels on the sun lounges of the Mediterranean. But it does show the
increase of arbitrary rule of the EU allied to the growing German
dominance of Europe."
Ends
Stuart Agnew MEP
is a member of the AFCO or Constitutional Affairs Committee of the
European Parliament.
Need I say more?
A further report
pokes the EU nose into Offshore Gas and Oil exploration, especially
with reference to European waters. Can they do this, of course they
can. An earlier commentary mentioned that a report on the CFP brought
a vote which allows the EU rights over the sea bed. So the rights
are there, prepared in advance.
There was also a
report on, "adequate, safe and sustainable pensions". This
is a re-run of an earlier attempt to hijack pensions which was all
about transferability of pensions, helping people moving from one
country to another. On that occasion I pointed out that no
legislation was necessary because different pension companies would
offer different policies with a view to creating a "niche"
market. That's just like Insurance Companies offering policies for
different customers who shop around for what suits them. Pensions
are, I said, an insurance against reduced circumstances after
retirement.
I do not know how
much notice they took but this report disappeared, we now have it
back in different form. That is how the EU works of course. Don't
frighten the horses, put it back on the shelf, let people think its
gone, then bring it out again with a few alterations as a new
departure.
Wednesday
Votes on the European banking
authority and Credit Institutions will do us no good. Worse to come.
A report on
Audiovisual media services was passed. This tells the news agencies
how to presnt news, how and what to present and will control what the
TV companies will be allowed to broadcast, ie calls for a broad
interpretation of what constitutes items of "Major interest to
society". EU Big Brother looms. Adopted by 593 - 69 votes.
Finally, "Mutual
recognition of protection measures in civil matters", in effect
this is about domestic violence. It sets up a European Protection
Order enabling a judge in any part of the EU to grant a domestic
violence injunction which will be enforceable without question in the
UK and may lead to persons being arrested and imprisoned for alleged
breaches by UK judges who will have lost jurisdiction over domestic
violence matters.
This will make
the European Arrest Warrant look tame. We voted against but it passed
by 602 - 23 votes. I/ we have sent an explanation of vote describing
our opposition and that UK law is perfectly capable of dealing with
domestic violence matters. Note that the EU can override UK law in
this matter. This will lead to the next step of overturning our laws
in other respects.
For me it brings
to mind my day in Rotherham helping with the by-election there. I did
my bit at the table in the market place, joining several other UKIP
members including a lady magistrate. Or, rather, a former magistrate.
After many years experience she increasingly found that she was
having to dispense justice EU- style, not according to UK law. So she
quit and joined us.
I just hope that
this is read by people who are not UKIP members, indeed, by those who
support our EU membership. To those people I say, "Whose law do
you want?" Or, to put it an other way, "do you now
understand that we are losing control of our own country. That the EU
continually ratchets up their regulations, starting with something
apparently sensible, in order to exert control over increasingly wide
fields of activity".
Britain started
Parliamentary Democracy which has been copied around the world. Where
it has been used you will find increasingly prosperous and peaceful
countries. European countries have not followed our lead, they are
now trying to catch up without looking at what we have to offer. The
wretched ECHR was brought in after the last war to prevent the
atrocities inflicted across Europe in the thirties and forties. Why
do we need it, we didn't build gas chambers.
Derek Clark
MEP Strasbourg May 22nd 2013
