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EU Relevance as Depression Bites
What is the Commission’s reaction to the increasingly widespread civil unrest in numerous EU nation states? Does it not reflect the entirely understandable and escalating need for national interests to be protected in times of financial hardship and unemployment?
Given that the emerging depression will be seen by millions as a fight for survival, a war against economic disaster, is not self-preservation and therefore self-interest inevitable?
Does the Commission fully understand that the catastrophically damaging enforcement of millions of words of EU regulations and directives, which were intolerable at the best of times, do nothing but add to present problems?
When does the Commission plan taking an axe to its forest of so-called “law”? Is that not the EU’s own best route to self-preservation, or will it be left to collapse under the weight of its own irrelevance as the depression truly bits to the bone?
Cost of Compliance
Does the Commission think that the cost to the British economy of implementing new EU regulations and directives over the last ten years was value for money?
The think-tank Open Europe has estimated the cost at 107 billion pounds sterling, far more than the UK 's gross contribution to the EU budget over the same period.
How do these figures compare with the cost of compliance in, say, France , which chooses to be far more selective about applying EU regulations and directives?
EU Revenue Must Fall
Since the EU's income is based, in large part, on VAT revenues, GDP and customs duty in nation states, what urgent plans are being made to reduce the EU's present and future budgets in the light of falls in all three revenue streams as the depression takes hold?
Green Line in Cyprus is Leaking Badly – Mark 2
Would the Commissioner please answer the key question posed in the last line of E-6431/08EN – what, precisely, is the Commission planning to do about this running sore?
Is the Commission aware that:
a) The British High Commission in Cyprus does not think there is a problem at all (personal letter from the HC); and
b) the government of the Republic of Cyprus does not officially recognise the Green Line for political reasons, ie: the island is one country?
In such extraordinary circumstances, does the Commission not recognise the urgent need for action and the enforcement of effective border controls? Does it not recognise that its present anguished wringing of hands is no response at all?
Stunning All Animals Before Slaughter
What plans does the Commission have to enforce EU regulations about the stunning of all animals for human consumption before slaughter? Particularly, how are these regulations to be enforced on ritual slaughterers producing halal meat?
Manure Problems for Dairy Farmers
Why is the new regulation on the spreading of manure on farmland to be enforced on small dairy farmers who have safely spread dung on grassland for centuries without harming the environment or the water table? What evidence does the Commission hold to suggest otherwise? The farmers in my constituency want to see it, please.
Is this not an extension of the pesticides directive, which was based on the absurd notion that because the Danes don't process ground water before drinking it, the rest of the EU must stop using many crucial pesticides?
Many small farmers have nowhere to store the accumulation of dung from their herds during the winter, and some will go out of business as a result. Does the prospect of importing yet more dairy produce from South America , for example, make any sense? Does the Commission realise that will be a direct consequence of this directive?
And why has the Commission decided the water table is no longer at risk - even if it was in the first place - on precisely 15th January each year?
Is the Commission not aware that the following month has always been known amongst farmers as "fill dyke February" precisely because that is when the water table is fully replenished each year?
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