Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2017-02-02-Speech-2-053-000"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20170202.3.2-053-000"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spoken text |
"Mr President, well, the Treaty of Rome is burning. And while it’s burning you’re fiddling, specifically fiddling with visa restriction rules. A lot of people were very upset in this Chamber yesterday and there were some very disgraceful scenes, and it was the people who would like Britain to remain in the EU getting upset with the people on this side who want it to leave. Now the truth is finally dawning on you here that Britain is going to leave and the European Union is going to lose one of its biggest net contributors.
Perhaps it would be good for you to understand that the central issue on why we decided to leave was because of a loss of democracy and national sovereignty and control, and the biggest issue that brought that home to the British people was the issue of immigration, and specifically mass uncontrolled immigration, which is what we’ve had for many years, specifically from the European Union in great numbers since 1997. To give you an idea on those figures, last year the official figure is that we had 650 000 people come into the country, but there were 825 000 National Insurance numbers issued, so it’s out of control and nobody knows what the real figures are.
To come onto the specifics of what we’re discussing here, this is a technical change, I understand, which would give Georgia visa-free access to the European Union for a period of 90 days, and as the rapporteur Ms Gabriel says, the EU remains a very attractive destination. Well, it’s true that back in the 18th century Dr Johnson said the most attractive thing about Scotland was the road to England. That’s still true, and in the 21st century equivalent the most attractive thing for many countries on the periphery of Europe is the road somewhere else, and one can hardly blame them.
Now perhaps there is something that you should consider. The British people voted to leave the European Union for many reasons, and one of the biggest ones was mass immigration. You’re actually making the problem worse for the European Union because you are extending these visa arrangements to people, who can come, there are then very few or no checks, they can overstay their welcome, and once inside the Schengen area, they can move anywhere else that they like.
You are going to lose Britain, and I wish you well when we’ve left. I don’t want to destroy the European Union; if that’s what you want, then good luck to you. But you’re going to destroy your own project because the next countries that are going want to leave are Germany, Holland, France and more. So in your own interest. I think you should wake up to what’s happening in the real world."@en1
|
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:unclassifiedMetadata |
"(The speaker agreed to take a blue-card question under Rule 162(8).)"1
|
| lpv:videoURI |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples