Strasbourg Commentary Plenary session 20 - 23 May 2013

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