Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-01-16-Speech-3-135"
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"en.20080116.9.3-135"2
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"Madam President, one minute without repetition, deviation or – what was the other one? Hesitation! Quite so.
Let us start, then, from first principles. Why does the European Union need to have a policy on the harmonisation of consumer credit laws? There seems to me to be a contextual misunderstanding behind this report. Free trade and open markets do not require common laws on every aspect of commercial activity. In fact, if anything, the opposite is true. Free markets depend upon diversity, variety, pluralism and, although a degree of light regulation at national level may sometimes be in order, that does not equate to euro-harmonisation of every aspect of market activity.
This is important because it seems to me that the same conceptual error lies behind the extension of EU jurisdiction in the various fields proposed in the Lisbon Treaty. As in the field of consumer protection, so in the fields of justice and home affairs, foreign affairs, defence and all the rest.
If these areas are to be transferred largely or wholly to Brussels, we ought at least to have the courtesy to consult our constituents first. The Treaty of Lisbon should be put to the people:
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