Sky News Provides balance

At last, Sky News has tried to balance the way the BBC has been signposting protest votes towards the totally cynical UKIP camp. The question is: what has UKIP actually DONE with its time in the European Parliament?

Answer: nothing. Sitting around committing sabotage is the UKIP way. Libertas gets out there and changes things for the better.

Supremacy of the Law in Doubt

David Cameron has announced that Members of Parliament should be subject to the full force of the law. It is worth reflecting on why this statement is necessary. Libertas will campaign to ensure that the supremacy of the law is never left in doubt.

Fuzzy Transparency in the European Parliament

The Rules of Procedure of the European Parliament (Annex 1) detail the transparency requirements for MEPs. They must make a personal, detailed declaration of their professional activities and any other remunerated functions or activities (Declaration of Financial Interests) and place it in a register maintained by the Parliamentary authorities.

The level of 'detail' accepted by the Parliamentary authorities means that the Declaration of Interests fails to do what it is supposed to do. For example, Nigel Farage (UKIP)declares "Commodity Broking" and "Journalism" without further comment. Sharon Bowles (LIB DEM) just says she is a partner in a law firm. On the other hand, Caroline Lucas (GREENS) does declare her additional income. Jeffrey Titford (UKIP) declares three words under 'further information': 'property', 'rent', 'pensions'.

These declarations are made in arrears and they are so badly administered that they contribute almost nothing towards transparency.

Libertas will ensure that transparency systems are properly supervised by the European Parliament authorities.

Go to the EU Parliament web site and see your MEP's declarations for yourself.



Source http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//NONSGML+RULES-EP+20080218+0+DOC+PDF+V0//EN&language=EN

EU Needs Better Supervision

Efforts by the European Commission to improve law enforcement capability on the EU borders are dogged by duplication and inefficiency. A recent report by the European Court of Auditors says that such a project in Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine costing 166 million euro had unsatisfactory results.

Experienced Libertas MEP's will drill down into all areas of EU activity and ensure that the management systems are working properly. This is essential before we start discussing any kind of expansion of power or increase in budgets.

Source http://eca.europa.eu/portal/pls/portal/docs/1/2362310.PDF

Big Decisions Through the Back Door

Politics in the EU seems to be about getting things done on the quiet and this is wrong.

The British Government asked the Commission to progress Montenegro’s entry into the European Union, but they did it in a meeting of fisheries ministers so that no-one would notice.

This is within the rules, but democratically wrong. Libertas will campaign tirelessly for more transparency in the way the Council operates, particularly when it discusses new laws and enlargement.

What Is the European Parliament?

The European Parliament does not make laws, it acts as a kind of people’s watchdog over the activities of the Eurocrats and national governments. It can only reject a legislative proposal from the European Commission with a majority in favour based on the total number of seats, not the number of people who turn up to vote. With an absenteeism rate of 30%, this is hard to achieve.

The sleaze associated with expenses is at least equal to what we have seen at Westminster in recent weeks and the travelling circus where the whole Parliament moves to Strasbourg once a month is a disgusting waste of tax-payers’ money – nearly £200 million! Libertas will campaign to put an end to this nonsense.

Those Who Stand By and Do Nothing

If the sleaze allegations against Parlementarians were made against people in the Public Service, the politicians would be baying for blood. Their corruption inquiry would not only look at those who had actually done wrong, but those that knew what was going on and failed to do anything about it. Libertas will not accept double standards in the European Parliament.

Tories Too Late

The adoption of the Libertas pledge by the Conservative Party is twenty years late. Promises are made before, not after.

Betrayal of EU Election Principles

The EU parliamentary election system was introduced to counter-balance the fact that many governments sitting in the Council of the European Union were elected by less than 50% of the universal suffrage in their countries. In order to improve the democratic basis for EU decision-making, the European Parliament elections were designed to allow the voices of smaller political grouping to be heard under a system of proportional representation.

In the UK, this democratic mechnism has been subverted by the determination of the main political parties to discuss national issues in European election campaigns and by the refusal of the media to treat smaller or newer political movements with the apporpriate consideration. While this is about freedom of political choice rather than money, this is also very sleazy, particularly when smaller voices are described as 'loony' or 'fringe'.

Libertas will campaign for more transparency about the way media outlets give access to new political voices in what is supposed to be a free, democratic process.

European Parliament - Tricks of the Law

When a Maltese journalist asked the European Parliament for access to information about MEPs’ expenses, the Parliament refused, hiding behind data protection rules. It also said there was no need to give out the information because there was a system of supervision in place and the public should trust in that.

The European Ombudsman intervened. He checked with the European Data Protection Adviser who threw out the data protection arguments and the Ombudsman said that the information about expenses should be made public for the sake of transparency. He argued that voters would not be able to exercise their democratic choice effectively if they were denied information about MEP attitudes to public funds.

The European Parliament still refused to publish the information because this was not a requirement in some member states of the EU. Since the European Parliament is subject to European law, not the lowest common denominator in the member states, the Ombudsman threw out this argument too. He also complained about the damage the European Parliament was causing to his credibility.

On 14 July 2008, he made a formal finding that the European Parliament was guilty of maladministration and that the way the European Parliament interpreted the law weakened the principle of transparency.

Source http://www.ombudsman.europa.eu/decision/en/053643.htm#hl3

Libertas will uphold all decisions made by the Ombudsman on transparenty and campaign within the Parliament to implement his recommendations. We will campaign against obstructionism and legal trickery in order to hide the truth behind MEPs' expenses.

EU Police Cooperation

In their 2008 report on Europol (the European Police Office), the House of Lords found that very few UK chief constables were able to recognise Europol reports or knew what the organisation did. This is a complete failure on the part of the UK police agencies to contribute effectively to European police cooperation. Libertas will ensure that when they enter the European Parliament, regular checks will be made on the progress of police cooperation at the EU Parliament level.

Poor Financial Compliance in EU Agencies

The EU Agencies were made the subject of a European Court of Auditors report at the end of 2008. The report says that no EU agency complies with the financial regulations that require them to have performance indicators that prove they deliver value for money. I will demand immediate improvements in this area in return for your vote in the European elections.

Source 'The European Union's agencies: getting results'
http://bookshop.eu.int/eubookshop/download.action?fileName=QJAB08005ENC_002.pdf&eubphfUid=641770&catalogNbr=QJ-AB-08-005-EN-C
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EU Carbon Trading Scheme

The EU Carbon Trading Scheme is an ambitious and worthwhile experiment in trying to reduce green house gas emissions in a flexible, positive way. Unfortunately, it is often presented as a complete success when it is in fact a major long-term project in its formative stage. We need the EU to provide leadership in environmental matters, but the limited scope of the scheme and the way Member States protect their heavy industries should be explained clearly to European voters. The way that electricity companies have passed the carbon costs on to their customers also needs greater explanation. This is what I will do when elected to the European Parliament.

Lisbon Treaty

It is obvious that we need to cooperate closely with Germany and the other Europen countries in matters of trade and economic development. But the Lisbon Treaty introuces changes to the way power is distributed between the countries of the EU. At the moment, if Germany wants to sponsor a piece of legislation in the Council of the European Union (where the Member States meet) Germany needs to find 69% of the available votes allocated to other countries. Under Lisbon, Germany only needs to get 48% of the votes of other countries to get a decision thrugh. This is probably quite fair, given Germany's size, but it should be explained to people, not done behind closed doors.

UK Contributions to the EU

There is a lot of confusion about the UK's net contribution to the EU. It's important to know this when discussing value for money or even when discussing whether the political parties should be telling you more about what's going on. The Treasury says it isn't much, but why don't you decide?

The net UK contribution to the EU coffers in 2009 - 2010 will be £6.064 billion and this will rise to £6.401 billion the following year. That is £100 per year for every man woman and child in the UK.

Source HM Treasury http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/d/european_community_finances_2008.pdf (page 24)

We will provide you with more information about how your money is spent than any other party has managed to do until now.