Business not Bureaucracy says Jim Allister MEP
28 May 2009
A staggering £107 billion was the cost to British business in the last decade of applying EU regulations, MEP and QC Jim Allister revealed today.
In a key message to voters in the June 4 EU Parliament elections, Mr Allister – Leader of the Traditional Unionist Voice Party – said he had called on Brussels to grant special measures to help people cope with the economic downturn.
“Given the huge pressure from the global credit crunch, I have called in the European Parliament for a "regulation holiday" for business.
“The immense cost and burden on business of EU regulation is more than we can bear. With small business being the backbone of our economy, my Party is pledged to continue to fight hard to ease the load of Brussels bureaucracy on business.
“It is estimated that in the last decade the cost on British business of applying EU regulation is a staggering £107 billion.
“Europe served as the testing ground for the two great economic philosophies of the past century and witnessed the dramatic collapse of one of them: Communism, which left Eastern Europe economically crippled.
“Yet, it is to this failed Marxist dogma that Sinn Fein is aligned, both ideologically and in the European Parliament, where it sits as part of the communist block, chasing every moonbeam of state control, regulation and business repression, all to be paid for by ever higher taxation.
“In contrast, we believe in the principles of economic freedom, where initiative, new technology and innovation-driven prosperity can flourish.”
Jim Allister's voting record in Europe is unashamedly pro-business and anti-restraint. A low taxation economy, with optimum business freedom, will maximise growth. This is the economic culture which we must grow in the UK. Yet, sadly, the dead hand of excessive EU regulation holds us back."
