Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2016-10-27-Speech-4-036-000"
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"en.20161027.3.4-036-000"2
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"Mr President, I understand we are all here today – the few of us that have actually turned up, maybe 3% of all MEPs – to discuss how young people can volunteer, in the name of the EU of course, to help those less fortunate both in Europe and abroad.
My party and nation fully support anybody wishing to volunteer to help wherever the help may be needed. Indeed, our former Prime Minister, Mr Cameron, spent 200 million on his Big Society project after the 2010 election with precisely this in mind. In principle, this was a very good thing. However, because it was political, and not social and local, it failed, and nobody now speaks of the Big Society in any way except ironically.
Which brings me now to the EVS now celebrating, if that is the right word, its 20th anniversary. In reality, what it means is you are celebrating spending 20 years of throwing taxpayers’ money down the drain, and as if this was not enough, the Europe for Citizens programme will cost the taxpayers of our nations a whopping EUR 186 million between 2014 and 2020. Clearly, it is not fulfilling this objective as I see that the Committee on Culture and Education is now developing another citizenship initiative called the European civic service initiative. Just like every other EU project it is a waste of money, it is unnecessary and nobody has heard of it.
While the EU throws money at projects such as this, public services are cut and there is widespread use of food banks all across Europe. How many more schemes will you put in place that will be re-branded at ever greater and greater cost, to fail to achieve the same objective – to create a demos where there is none?
While the ostensible goals of these projects are laudable, they are failures under any benchmark and are never really what they say on the tin, so I say ‘stop them now’. National governments already do these things. Give them their taxpayers’ money back and let them get on with it. You are only doing this to make us all feel part of your nations’ EU superstate. Please stop now."@en1
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