Allister condemns EU empire building
18 February 2009
During a debate in the European Parliament on reports demanding "strategic autonomy" for the EU and progress towards a European Army, Traditional Unionist MEP Jim Allister strongly attacked the propositions, labelling them the latest confirmation that an EU Superstate is intended under the Lisbon Treaty.
An avid opponent of European centralisation and loss of sovereignty from the member states, the Ulster Euro MP denounced the proposals as empire building.
In the course of his remarks Mr Allister said:-
"Those who pretend an EU Superstate is not being built before our eyes, have a lot of explaining to do in terms of the contents of these "Empire building" reports.
Affirmations that a common defence policy - now taken as a given - and what is called "the EU's strategic autonomy" require "an integrated European Armed Force" and demands for "an autonomous and permanent EU Operational Headquarters", along with demands for equivalence with NATO, leave no room for doubt that under a Common Foreign and Security Policy, those pushing the European project demand not just political power, but military power, all of which must come from diminishing the powers, rights and independence of individual member states.
Such superstatehood and centralised army for Europe I repudiate, as I do the Lisbon Treaty which would make all this possible."
View this speech on Youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJd4SRUu3KA
