Nikki Sinclaire MEP SUPPORTS CALL FOR A FREEZE IN BEER TAX

PRESS RELEASE

MEP SUPPORTS CALL FOR FREEZE IN BEER TAX

Issue Date: 13^th March 2012

Nikki Sinclaire Independent MEP for the West Midlands has called on the Chancellor of the Exchequer to back Britain’s beer and pub sector by calling time on planned punitive tax increases in the Budget. The move follows new figures showing the huge impact brewing and pubs have on the West Midlands economy.

Nikki Sinclaire MEP is pointing out that Britons now pay 40 per cent of the entire EU beer tax bill, but only consume 13 per cent of the beer sold in Europe. Beer taxes in the UK are now an astonishing 11 times higher than in the largest beer market, Germany.

Nikki Sinclaire MEP is backing the campaign by the British Beer & Pub Association, the Society of Independent Brewers and the Campaign for Real Ale, for the Chancellor to abandon planned +5% hike in beer duty, saving 16,000 jobs over the next three years.

According to new analysis by leading economists Oxford Economics for the BBPA:

•            The beer and pub sector sustains 101388  jobs in the West Midlands

•            This includes 31818  jobs for 16 – 24 year olds, who have been hit hard by the economic slowdown

•            The sector adds £2,466.5 million to the regional economy

•            The sector also contributes £1,141.3 million taxes to the exchequer in the region

•            In total the beer and pub sector supports almost 1 million UK jobs and 46 per cent of those employed in the sector are 16 to 24 year olds

Commenting on the campaign, Nikki Sinclaire MEP said:

“These figures show how important the brewing and pub sector is in the West Midlands. I hope the Chancellor will take action to protect these jobs by scrapping the beer duty escalator. This will also help our much-loved pubs, the communities they serve and the important local facilities they provide.”

ENDS

Speaking at the Employment committee

Yesterday I spoke at the Employment committee for the first time:

The text of my speech:

Your 18,000 "Europe at work" programme has sentiments that have been echoed a thousand times before it was probably build for from a blueprint from the Commission and Berlin

Last week in Strasbourg Commission President Barroso naively said if every small and medium enterprise created one position unemployment would be eliminated in Europe.

Does the presidency understand that over EU regulation is helping to destroy jobs?  In the UK the Federation of Small Businesses manifesto plea at the last election was, "no more EU regulation please".
Minister, you said that "jobs are not created by employment and social policies only"  but Minister the destruction of jobs and the creation of jobs are destroyed by such policies.

A series of EU-dictated cuts have degraded public services, reduced salaries and wreaked havoc on people's lives.
Whilst I share your opinion about creating training opportunities for our young people - it is all rhetoric isn't it with no solid proposals.

And again I agree with active ageing, how do you square the circle? Where are all these jobs going to come from? Maybe you want to create jobs by creating thousands and training schemes that bleed the taxpayer without providing any real substance.

Finally, I note that you extoll the virtues of the Euro as currency, from a country that like the UK does not have the Euro. Your people twice rejected the Euro, last time in 2000 in a Referendum. Your country, your population does not believe in the Euro - and quite rightly so. We had the scaremongering in the late 90s about the Euro and we were told we would lose jobs and that certain companies would move out. We've stayed outside of the Euro. Those companies such as Nissan did not move out, it is just scaremongering. Jobs are created outside of the Eurozone, not inside the Eurozone.

Joining the Employment Committee

As well as a change over in President last week and the beginning of the Danish Council Presidency, MEP's also had the chance to change committees if they so wished.

At this halfway point you have the choice to change Committees if you so wish, and the press release which you can find here, will explain that I have joined the Employment committee.

Joining Committees


Places on committees are allocated by each of the political groups. Each MEP generally has two committees but this is not always the case. If members change political group, or simply want to change which committee they sit on, this can be done at the halfway point.

Which MEP gets which place is for negotiation between them and their group. Some groups do not give their members much choice over which committees that they sit on. 

As a non-attached MEP, Nikki negotiated her new places herself with the Parliament's administration.

When I became an MEP I promised to fight for jobs for people in my constituency. With growing levels of youth unemployment, I am incredibly worried about the job prospects for young people in the UK. I will fight EU legislation which will lead to less jobs being created.

I have spoken about the loss of jobs in the West Midlands in my speeches in Parliament, specifically noting the Peugeot Ryton Plant in Coventry

Nikki talks about youth unemployment and unemployment in the West Midlands in the above video, also referencing the Ryton Plant.

Press Release: West Midlands MEP joins the Employment Committee

West Midlands MEP Nikki Sinclaire today takes her seat on the European Parliament's Employment Committee in Brussels.

Since her election in 2009, Nikki has spoken out strongly against EU policies and subsidies that have led to British businesses relocating to other EU member states. It was a £105 million grant from the EU that led to Peugeot closing its factory in Ryton and relocating to Slovakia in 2007 with the loss of 2,300 jobs.

Some of the main issues that Nikki will be addressing will include health & safety of workers, and tackling the problems of unemployment. Sometimes, said Nikki, EU policy is confused to say the least. "On the one hand, the EU wants to put more young people into employment, and on the other it wants to raise the retirement age as part of its active aging policy, whilst at the same time creating new taxes on business transactions. We need to remove all this political ideology and bureaucratic red tape and let our businesses get on and do what they are best at - creating jobs and prosperity".

Nikki has voted and acted consistently to protect British business and workers, and rejects what she describes as "EU interference and over-regulation" in British affairs.

ENDS

 Notes to Editors:

The Employment & Social Affairs Committee is responsible for:

employment policy and all aspects of social policy such as working conditions, social security and social protection;
health and safety measures at the workplace;
the European Social Fund;
vocational training policy, including professional qualifications;
the free movement of workers and pensioners;
social dialogue;
all forms of discrimination at the workplace and in the labour market except those based on sex;
relations with:
          -    the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (Cedefop),
          -    the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions,
          -    the European Training Foundation,
          -    the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work;
          -    as well as relations with other relevant EU bodies and international organisations

Danish presidency priorities:

check page 13 & page 50 http://eu2012.dk/en/EU-and-the-Presidency/About-the-Presidency/~/media/Files/Presidency%20programme/EU%20Presidency_Programme_UK_Final%20Web_22_12.ashx