When less means more
14 March 2007
Speaking in Strasbourg in a major debate on the outcome of last week's Heads of Government meeting, Jim Allister MEP attacked Europe's "phoney war" on bureaucracy. Contrasting yet another "war on bureaucracy", with even more regulation on the back of climate change, the Ulster Euro MP identified a cynical merry-go-round of regulation as the reason d'etre of Europe.
Mr Allister also dealt with the suggestion emerging from the Summit that the title "Constitution" might be dropped from the Treaty on institutional change as a means of avoiding referenda.
In the course of his remarks Mr Allister said:-
"Ever since I first came to this House I've heard repeated promises of cutting red tape, be it from the Commission, Council or Parliament itself. Now from this Council Summit we have yet another war declared on bureaucracy. Some hope, I suspect, considering these EU edifices are veritable factories of regulation.
Indeed at the same Summit, under the guise of tackling climate change, a whole new front of regulation is opened up, even down to dictating the type of light bulbs Member States and citizens can use. Where will these bulbs be made? Probably in China, thanks to over-regulation causing manufacturers to take flight eastwards, where the uncontrolled factories making them will belch out even greater CO2 emissions, because we never enforce such restrictions in our trade agreements with China. Rather we reserve such punitive measures for our own industry. Such is the self-defeating merry-go-round that is the regulation-crazed EU.
Speaking of merry-go-rounds brings me to the manoeuvrings at the Summit over the rejected Constitution. So, Chancellor Merkel thinks EU citizens can be by-passed and hoodwinked if the title of Constitution is dropped. Then, we can avoid even asking the electorate. What a coup for democracy! What a cowardly farce! What a commentary on the EU elite and their arrogant contempt for the people whose interests they pretend to serve. The fact that the EU is running away from its own people tells us all we need to know about its worth and value as we approach the 50th birthday of the Treaty of Rome, which spawned this undemocratic lust for Brussels domination and control."
