Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-03-14-Speech-3-140"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20010314.4.3-140"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spoken text |
"Mr President, when the UK Prime Minister went to Lisbon he quite arrogantly lectured other European leaders about how they should be running their economies. Not content with trying to control us at home, he is trying to do that in Europe as well. He came back to the UK saying that Europe is going our way and that he had changed the agenda. However, as far as I can see, the only way in which Europe is following Mr Blair's agenda is by piling yet more red tape on business and more regulation, and making Europe an ever more expensive place in which to do business.
Mr Blair's government introduced about 3500 regulations last year alone – a record increase. The lessons of Lisbon have not been learned in London or Brussels, because we still see every day in this House more regulation and more red tape being produced.
I challenge both Commissioner Prodi and Mrs Lindh to come up with one example of where a burden on business has been removed or repealed since Lisbon, one example of an EU measure which makes it easier and not more difficult and more expensive to employ people and one example of a proposal for a regulation which has been dropped as being too expensive or disproportionate to the aims sought.
I hope that I will be proved wrong in my assessment of the success rate from Lisbon being very low indeed. We still have directives on how to climb ladders. We still have directives on lawnmowers, fluorescent ballast and one on electrical waste which is quite simply going to be a tax on computers. How is that going to promote the e-economy in Europe? Regulation may feel like cost-free political points to politicians, but someone has to pay the bill. The people who pay the bills are the customers of these companies, who pay them in higher prices and, above all, the people of Europe, who are priced out of jobs.
I call on the Commission and the Council to live up to the fine words of Lisbon with action: remove red tape and, above all, make it easier, not more difficult or expensive to employ people in Europe."@en1
|
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:unclassifiedMetadata |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples