 Gerard Batten Monday 4 July 2005 One-minute speeches on matters of political importance |
Mr President, the week before last we were addressed by the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair. Mr Blair knows that the European project is in crisis. He knows that further political integration cannot be sold to the peoples of Europe, still less the British, unless there are at least some cosmetic changes to the worst excesses of the budget. We in Britain have endured New Labour for the last eight years. Now it is your turn to endure New Europe at least for the next six months. Mr Blair hopes that he can reform the European Union in order to make it more palatable to the people. He will learn the same lesson as Mrs Thatcher did, namely that the European Union is unreformable. It is likely that it will be even more apparent to the British people at the end of the British Presidency that the British Government should adopt UKIP's policy of unconditional withdrawal.
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 John Whittaker Monday 4 July 2005 2004 Annual Report – ECB; Communication strategy on the euro |
Mr President, EU institutions keep telling themselves that the euro is a success. If only the public realised what a success it is, euroscepticism would vanish and people would all come to love the euro. The problem, we are told, is lack of knowledge. Hence the drive to spend EUR 16 million on a communication and information campaign giving neutral and factual information.
Unfortunately, the neutral and factual information is not likely to persuade EU citizens in the desired direction. All the large eurozone countries, and several of the smaller ones, are struggling with poor growth and rising government debt. The rules of the Stability Pact have been flouted all round and no honest observer can try to claim that the new flexible pact has any teeth, although the Commission has recently been pointing the finger at Italy. Yet we all agree that fiscal discipline is necessary if the euro is to endure as a multinational currency. So how do we measure success? Easier travel, says Mr Maaten; lower interest rates, says Mr Trichet. But lower interest rates are more a response to poor growth than a sign of success. While the ECB must be applauded for its achievements with consistently low inflation, Mr Trichet's deputy admits that the euro may have been part of the problem, accepting that the 'one size fits all' interest rate is not appropriate for countries with different inflation rates and business cycles. The euro has not succeeded in its aim of binding EU citizens in ever-closer union. The euro has not succeeded in forcing countries to adopt the structural reforms that are necessary for the long-term health of eurozone economies. Is that the information that will be provided under this initiative? It should be, because that is what is relevant to people's wellbeing. An objective appraisal would admit that in creating the euro the EU has tried to create a silk purse from a pig's ear. It is now obvious that what we have is indeed the pig's ear – perhaps not something we should be boasting about too loudly. Have we learned nothing from France and the Netherlands, where the efforts of governments to obtain a 'yes' in their referendums on the Constitution merely hardened opinion against it? To spend money now promoting the euro would be foolish and irresponsible. It would also be typical of the head in the sand arrogance that we have come to expect from the European Union.
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 Thomas Wise Tuesday 5 July 2005 Patentability of computer-implemented inventions |
Mr President, computer entrepreneurs are amongst the most independent spirits in the world. I know how they feel, faced with the prospect of this directive. They, as much as anyone, reject the concept of restrictive monoliths. They know that the EU is just such a monolith. The directive is typical of the monolithic actions that they seek to reject. I have worked hard in recent weeks to help computer SMEs resist this directive. However, I have come to realise that the amendments proposed by the rapporteur do not change the fundamental problem. Mr Rocard is trying to remove non-technical features of computer-controlled inventions from the scope of the directive. That in itself is laudable, but he is not seeking to stop the directive overall; in fact he is supporting it. As such, small computer companies are left, one might say, between a Rocard and a hard place. Mr Rocard goes as far as to state in his explanatory statement that he supports the Council's position in principle. His amendments do not reject the concept of harmonisation. They explicitly support it. One of them even says that the objective of the directive – namely to harmonise national rules on the patentability of computer-controlled inventions – cannot be properly achieved by the Member States. Sadly, Mr Rocard is one of those people, typical in the EU, who increasingly seem to think that the European Patent Office is some sort of subsidiary of the EU, when in fact it covers non-EU countries as well. I reject this directive completely. That is why I will vote against it and Mr Rocard's version of it. I have always said that, if the EU is the answer, it must have been a silly question. Today that is patently obvious!
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 Graham Booth Tuesday 5 July 2005 Structural Funds |
Mr President, cohesion policy has been at the heart of the European project from the outset and it is a policy dependent upon the concept of regions at the expense of nations. In many countries, not least the UK, regions are a wholly artificial concept. It is only a short step from artificial regions within the nation states to artificial regions straddling them. If European groupings of cross-border cooperation make that step they will be entities with a legal personality, with their own statutes, organs and budgetary rules. The Commission explicitly states that EGCCs are a means of overcoming the major difficulties in carrying out cooperation due to the many national laws. This is a momentous development hidden away as usual behind dry jargon. Conservative-controlled Kent County Council will love all this. It has already set up an unofficial cross-border region – Transmanche – with Nord-Pas de Calais, but the people of the UK will not even accept attempts to set up regional governments within their own borders. I assure you there is no way they will accept regional government from beyond them.
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Gerard Batten Wednesday 6 July 2005 EU/Iraq - A framework for engagement |
Mr President, reports before this Parliament seldom contain jokes, but there is some humour, if unintentional, in this one. Paragraph 43 suggests that the European Union 'offers its expertise and assistance with a view to the drafting of the Iraqi Constitution'. Iraqis might think that the European Union's expertise and experience in this field leaves something to be desired. Its last attempt produced a Constitution that was opaque and confused and ran to almost 500 pages. On the other hand, the United States of America has a clear and concise Constitution that runs to just a few pages of paper, with only about 27 amendments needed over the past 200 years. If the Iraqis need some help, they might prefer to ask the Americans to lend a hand. If the EU becomes involved it might even offer to organise the constitutional referendum for the Iraqis, and that could lead to all kinds of unwanted problems.
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 Nigel Farage Wednesdy 6 July 2005 Africa, globalisation and poverty |
Mr President, the British Presidency, the Commission, the President of Parliament, Bob Geldof: everybody is talking about it. And we are all slapping ourselves on the back; there is a mood of self-congratulation over our giving more money to Africa, as if, somehow, money will solve the whole problem. Well, I am afraid that I remain a bit of a cynic and I see foreign aid as poor people in rich countries giving money to rich people in poor countries. Frankly, I think the atmosphere here on Monday, when we discussed this, and again today, smacks of rank hypocrisy: all the while we have the common agricultural policy; all the while we have high tariff barriers against agricultural goods; all the while we have the sugar regime and the export credit system. I know that Mr Blair wants to reform the common agricultural policy. I suspect he is going to struggle, but there is one thing the British Presidency could do over the course of the next six months to really help Africa. We have spent over EUR 2 billion of European taxpayers' money bribing poor black African governments to allow the Spanish fleet in to fish. It has had environmentally disastrous consequences, we have taken away the livelihoods of tens of thousands of indigenous poor black Africans, and we have actually killed hundreds of them into the bargain. Starting with the Comoros deal, renewable in September, will you in the British Presidency please stop these appalling fisheries deals and do something to really help Africa?
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