Europe

Q. More Integration within Europe?
Legislation: Parliament vs. European Union Tell us your thoughts.

More and more of our legislation now comes from Brussels. Over 3000 new laws from Europe since 1999. Think about that, 3000 new laws. The UK has 78 Members in the European Parliament.

The NDP has a problem with the European Union. The original idea of a common trading area was excellent. When you look at the inter-trading between member countries you can only call the EU successful. Some of that success has to be questioned when you look hard at some of the protectionist policies. The Common Agricultural Policy, which was initially instigated to protect French farmers, who were mostly smallholders, is one that comes to mind. The initial aims were possibly sincere, however it quickly became one of the most corrupt policies ever introduced anywhere in the world. Overall I think most people, if they thought it through, would say that the EU has been successful in providing a trading platform for like-minded economies.

However when the EU starts making laws, which affect our every day life then we have to question whether being a member is a benefit.

The main problem we have is has become the biggest unaccountable bureaucracy in the world. Some of the things they do are plain stupid. For instance moving the whole shebang once a year from Brussels to Strasbourg and then back again just to satisfy the French is plain stupid; not only that, it costs millions.

Corruption and accountability are clearly major problems and with arrival of more and more countries into the EU these problems are only going to get worse. The auditors have refused to sign off the EU’s accounts for at least the last 10 years. Nobody does anything about this massive problem. Every year the council of ministers and the MEPs just shrug their shoulders and hope the problem will go away. It doesn’t and it won’t until someone has the balls to sort it out.

The whole organisation has become a huge gravy train costing huge sums of money.

And the expansion hasn’t stopped, the EU is considering letting Turkey join. Are we really comfortable letting in a country whose human rights abuses have been well documented and whose population of approximately 100 million is mostly Muslim?

In the view of the NDP the political side of the EU should be halted in its tracks and the EU should revert to being a very successful trading union.

It is possible that we might see the break up of the EU in any event. Four countries, other than Britain, are in serious financial difficulties. The total indebtedness of Portugal, Spain, Italy and Greece is almost as much as their Gross National Product. Greece’s debt is 95% of their GDP. This situation is not sustainable and may mean that these countries have to return to their former currencies. If these countries were outside the European Monetary Union then they would devalue their currencies. Unfortunately being in the Euro they can’t take this step.

The pound has depreciated against both the Euro and the US dollar by about 25%; this has had the effect of making our exports that much cheaper when sent abroad. Our recession is going to be diabolical, but imagine what it would be like if were competing with Europe and the States for exports on level terms.

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