Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2016-04-11-Speech-1-061-000"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20160411.16.1-061-000"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spoken text |
"Mr President, this report on subsidiarity and proportionality quotes Article 5 of the Treaty, which says: ‘notionally invites consideration of whether exercise of an EU competence is necessary or could properly and effectively be done at the Member State level’.
How very decent of you to actually concede that some laws should be made by democratic nation states and not the EU. Say something about subsidiarity. I might be wrong but I seem to remember about 24 or 25 years ago, when the Treaty on European Union was progressing, somebody suggested that there should be a cash prize for anybody that could actually define subsidiarity and describe how it would work in practice. As far as I know nobody ever won.
Proportionality is a bit late when the EU now controls most areas of domestic policy, and most of our laws now come from the EU, down to the wattage in electric kettles, toasters and vacuum cleaners. We recently saw the British Prime Minister on his hands and knees begging the EU to allow him to reduce VAT on tampons, which is something that he is powerless to do.
David Cameron’s so-called reforms include something on the yellow card, which says that Member States – not individual Member States, of course: 15 together – can stop some legislation. I would like to ridicule this but I do not have to, because it was already ridiculed by William Hague when he was Foreign Minister in parliament, when he absolutely tore this idea to pieces when it was proposed before. If you do not believe me you can see it on YouTube, and you can see David Cameron laughing away next to him. Now he has adopted exactly the same policy as one of his most mooted reforms.
You are all going to get a lesson in subsidiarity and proportionality when the British people have their referendum on 23 June and when they vote to leave. They are increasingly coming to understand that the essential question is: do you want to live in a democratic state or an undemocratic state where you do not elect and cannot sack your government in Brussels?"@en1
|
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:unclassifiedMetadata | |
| lpv:videoURI |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples