Debate,- Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion

Speech to Parliament                               Strasbourg                          15th Nov 2011


Debate,-  Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion

To quote from your own documents,-
"National and local events will take place in every EU Member State, awareness raising campaigns, workshops, school indoctrination and so on and so on..".

The documents also say that this is mainly the responsibility of the member state no EU money is forthcoming, so its member state's money. How do those countries most in need manage that?

Only last month this house voted to raise the take from member states by 5%. Of a hundred budget lines some 20 were for a reduction. With like minded MEPs I supported those, which would have saved European taxpayers 100 million Euros, but was outvoted by most of you, on all except 2 lines, so only 1 million was saved.

If people keep more of their earnings they spend more, helping other businesses to keep going and helping employment.

So the member states who really need help for this program will not get it, where will they find the money, you've already raided their bank balances for bail out funds.

(NB Commissioner Andor speaking at the start said that  EU funds would support this program,  hence the comment in para two)

Oral question Parliament Oct 25th 2011 Maternity Leave directive.

Oral question       Parliament        Oct 25th 2011

Maternity Leave directive.

How can you justify this proposal to treble maternity pay, requiring firms to pay new mothers full salary for 20 weeks. Don't you know we are in the middle of one of the worst recessions of modern times?

This will present businesses with the prospect of a £2 billion burden. Even my government opposes this move.

In addition you plan to extend minimum parental leave from 3 months to 4 months for each parent. That's separate from the maternity leave with one month of the four not transferrable to the other parent.

Is the Council prepared to compromise on main issues, like the duration of maternity leave and the level of payment?

Otherwise you intend to give member states 2 years to amend their laws, 'though how you can say their laws I don't know. This comes straight from the Commission factory and we shall oppose this job destroying proposal.

Derek Clark  MEP                                                                  Strasbourg 25th Oct 2011            

Speech to Parliament Oct 25th 2011 Debate; Agenda for new Skills and Jobs.

Speech to Parliament                                           Oct 25th 2011

Debate; Agenda for new Skills and Jobs.

We've been here before. Remember the Lisbon Agenda, "The most competitive knowledge based economy in the world" leading to more and better jobs. This 10 year program started in 2000, where is it?

It failed, of course, simply because you keep on thinking that you can solve a problem by central decree. Sorry, does not work that way. Such programs need a written plan with rules and regs, and there we go, straight into the red-tape jungle.

If you could only understand that. Cut the red tape and all the restrictive regulations and let people get on with what they do best, making things and selling them.

Once again I must remind you that big business can cope with red tape, they can afford compliance officers and well paid lawyers to bail them out if they make a mistake. SMEs, which employ half the work force, do not have those resources, so when they get into trouble they fold, another one or two jobs go and fewer youngsters taken on to learn a trade.

Take this morning's farce in the vote on tyres for motor vehicle and trailers. Its not really a farce, its another head ache for the motor trade. For how many small garages will this be the last straw and go under?

This whole agenda is another "one size fits all" idea, or rather, "one size that fits no one".  The Euro is one of those, now falling apart before your eyes and all you can think of is to try more of the same. And the first casualties of that disaster are, of course, the SMEs, and more jobs lost.

Derek Clark     Strasbourg                                              25thOct 2011

Strasbourg Commentary Plenary Session 24th - 27th Oct 2011

Strasbourg Commentary                   Plenary Session     24th - 27th Oct 2011

I'm sure you have all seen enough of the referendum vote last Monday. Whatever you think about having a referendum, especially on the terms as offered, I think you will agree that the Government are totally out of step with the electorate, which can only be to our advantage. We must try to press that home.

I was, of course, at Westminster on Monday, with Don Ransome and Sue, and some 3 or 4 hundred mainly UKIP members, protesting outside what used to be the REAL Houses of Parliament. All very peaceful with lots of placards bearing branch names,- East Mids well represented. So, like other UKIP MEPs, I missed the first day of this week's Strasbourg session.

Tuesday, got here at lunch time, just in time for voting. This included a vote on motor vehicle tyres, commented on in the first of my two speeches this week. All this way for that?  Not quite, there were 15 other reports up for voting. Another vote was on, "Application of emission stages to narrow-track tractors". Wow. These unmanned tractors work their way up and down the rows of produce, harvesting potatoes, grapes and the like, but they are nasty diesel powered jobs, emitting particulates as well as carbon dioxide. Got to be controlled.

Wednesday. Vote on the Budget for next year. In this period of financial difficulty you'd think they would hold back and trim the spending, but not this lot. The great work of the EU must go on, so most items show an increase in spending,- for which we will pay more in taxes-, and Cameron stands no chance of getting it reduced.

The budget is presented as line-by-line expenditure, about 100 lines in various groups. We voted against the lot, except for about 20 lines where a reduction in expenditure was suggested, which together would have saved about 119 Million Euros, roughly £100 million. Would you be surprised to learn that we were out voted on all but two of these lines, so Parliament was only prepared to save just under £1 million.

Thursday.

Votes today include minding other people's business in the Ukraine, Egypt etc. etc.

The main business is the Key Debate this morning, "Conclusions of the European Council meeting", the financial crisis and their proposals. I think I know the answer before we start. It will be more of the same, cash in enormous quantities, good money chasing bad, arrogant statements, economic government, common fiscal policy, solidarity, but my guess is, no plan "B".

The group leaders will all have a say, which includes Nigel, and his speech will be on the web in full so I will leave that for you to see. (In fact Nigel went home early so as to do ‘Question Time’ tonight, that’s much more important.  The speech as Group Leader will be given by our Dutch MEP Bas Belder).

In any case I am writing this commentary before the day's business begins as my bus to Frankfurt leaves at 1.00 pm for my 5.15 flight. Voting starts at 12.30 and I have to spend time this week as whip, standing in for Gerard, and that takes quite a bit of time each morning. I may be asked to squeeze a TV interview in as well, so I'm taking the chance to complete this week's edition now, this morning, in the right atmosphere. I can send it home to complete there, and I have done that before, but I find it loses impact for me.

Derek Clark    MEP                                     Strasbourg 27th Oct 2011.

Brussels Commentary Plenary session 13th - 14th Oct 2011

Brussels Commentary     Plenary session               13th - 14th Oct    2011

Wednesday saw Barroso pontificating about the Euro and the measures being taken to rectify the problems. All the usual pie-in-the-sky stuff, quite divorced from reality. Its now 2 trillion Euros for the ECB to bail out whoever next goes pear shaped. You will have seen newspaper report of how Slovakia put a spanner in the works, which drew this response from Barroso,-

I congratulate those elements in the Slovakian Government  who supported the Euro against the selfish approach of pure national interests.

His arrogance as he promotes the EU/Euro, whatever the damage done to societies and to the real people of them, is quite breath taking.

Even Schultz criticised Barroso but note the term used, "people were being confused by your Parliament"

William Dartmouth asked a question of Schultz, "Would any treaty changes be ratified by referendums, or not?" The response was that, as we should know, the UK is one of those countries which MUST have a referendum for this kind of thing. News to us!! And Schultz is not short of informed advice. As he spoke there sat right behind him none other than Stephen Hughes, Labour North East!

Video of Nigel's response is on the web but see below part of it, quoting the rebel Slovakian Parliamentarian, -

 

"I'd rather be a pariah in Brussels than feel ashamed before my children who would be deeper in debt"

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Thursday  a photo shoot outside the Berlaymont, the Commission building. This was to support the Federation of Small Businesses in handing over a letter to the Commission. The Commissioner responsible, Tajani, said a week ago he could not come so senior team member Valentina Superti would stand in. Late yesterday Ms Superti announced that she could not make the agreed 10.30 am meeting, could only manage 3.30 pm, but of course the FSB could not cancel the arrangements involving their Reps, MEPs photographers and all, so it went ahead anyway.

I will post pics showing a number of us holding the banner of protest. This is against the Commission banning our new tall trucks, those up to 4.9 metres high as opposed to the regular 4.0 m. It does not take a genius to work out how an extra one fifth capacity will cut down on trucks, so less motorway congestion, carbon dioxide etc, etc. UK hauliers will not be taking these high trucks abroad anyway, so it has no impact on the continent, except to make our hauliers more competitive. But the EU does not like competition, hence the regulation. I expect many will remember that we had to re-build bridges to take the extra load when continental trucks got bigger.

Its called, a level playing field.

  Derek Clark   MEP                                           Brussels  13th Oct 2011