EU Court Overules Elected Parliament on Single Seat Issue

 

 

The European Court of Justice has today ruled against an amendment which was tabled by members of the European Parliament to bring the two post-summer Strasbourg sessions into one week. Parliament sent a clear signal that we want to reduce the waste of money, let alone the extra CO2 emissions caused by moving between Brussels and Strasbourg.

 

This is EU protectionism at its worse. The institution that knows no cuts whilst it insists on austerity for everyone else has recklessly decided to waste some more taxpayers money. The travel between Strasbourg and Brussels, the travelling circus as I like to call it, is a complete waste of tax-payers money. Shame on this decision.

How can it be right that the European Court of Justice can overrule the wishes of an elected Parliament?

 

Riots in Brussels - this time about milk

There have been riots outside Brussels parliament building once again this week. This time, it concerns agriculture and the price of milk. Various news outlets have published pictures of riot police being sprayed with milk.

My assistant was punched whilst this was all going on. We have some footage in the video above showing the fire and general chaos.

Discussing the budget summit on BBC C&W

I spoke to Shane O'Connor on BBC Coventry and Warwickshire this morning about David Cameron's attempts to freeze a rise in the EU budget. If there is no agreement about the budget, then it will automatically rise by 2.9%!

Nikki Sinclaire MEP makes a point of order

I made a point of order during voting yesterday and got a very curt reply. Here is a video of the whole issue, watch it through to the end, it is quite interesting...

Flag matters

Just before Christmas, my office in Brussels raised the matter of the Union Flag being flown upside-down with the parliament authorities.

Action was taken, albeit after a week, and an explaination and an apology would have been nice.

Yesterday the matter was raised again, this time in Strasbourg, where again our flag was once again upside down.

Of course, this does actually have significance: by flying the Union flag upside down, the parliament is in fact indicating to passing shipping that it is in distress.

Given that it is a landocked institution, this might be seen as clutching at straws, but since all else has failed in the EU's attempts to rescue the Eurozone from disaster, perhaps the last hope is that a passing tugboat might tow the EU to safety!

The Strasbourg Circus

As few of you might know, MEPs and the European Parliament are all on the move during this early part of the week, as this week is a Strasbourg week.

The Parliament meets in Strasbourg for 12 sessions a year, and the building is unused for an estimated 307 days per year.

The travelling circus involves many trucks transporting goods from the MEPs offices in Brussels over to Strasbourg, and then back again once the week is over. Assistants and other workers from the Parliament all relocate at a massive cost.

It seems ironic that in a news week which is dominated by the EU telling Greece to cut costs, that they can justify the cost of moving the Parliament from Brussels to Strasbourg for one week a month.

In this article taken from EUObserver in 2008, it was estimated that the travelling circus costs around  €200 million per year, and has a big environmental impact with all the extra travel involved.

Further reading

The Contradiction of the EU's Strasbourg sessions
Strasbourg Carbon Cost Condemned

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.

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
 

BBC, Public enquiry then on Brussels

Today has been one of those typical untypical days that is the job of an MEP. It all started at 7.40am with a Radio interview on the BBC

Then it was off to to the Public enquiry in Meriden dealing with the issue of the inappropriate development on the greenbelt. Further media interviews with the BBC, ITV and several newspapers. By lunchtime I was in the office for a quick staff meeting and catch up on correspondence then the now usaual dash to the airport to catch the plane to Brussels for the mini plenary this week. As soon as I arrived in the office started dealing with a mountain of paperwork and reports and am writing this blog from my office at 23.54 then off to bed!  Early start tomorrow

Trains, Planes and change of schedule

One of the more frustrating elements of being an MEP is the travel and in particular the need for flexibility due to last minute changes of plan. Today is a good example. I left home at 7.15am to catch a train to London to support constituents from Barnacle, Coventry at the High Court in London in their attempt to obtain a permanent injunction against inappropriate development in their community by gypsies. I decided to not attend Brussels today to support them. Just as the train pulled away from Birmingham International I got a phone call informing me that the matter had been adjourned. I got off the train in Coventry and waited for the next train back to Birmingham.

I spent the morning in my office going through constituency matters including writing to Local Communities Minister, Eric Pickles demanding that he revoke John Prescott's circular 2006/01 that has allowed gypsies to destroy Green Belt land.

I then re-arranged my flight so I could get to Brussels for the plenary session.