Saturday, 25th October 2008

By Philip Vander Elst, UKIP Prospective Candidate in the 2009 European Elections and author of the pamphlet "The Principles of British Foreign Policy" (http://www.brugesgroup.com/about/index.live)

HOW THE EU CONTROLS OUR LIVES

80% of our laws now originate, directly or indirectly, in Brussels and cannot be rejected or altered by our own Westminster Parliament.

EU regulations and directives are responsible for such diverse things as post office closures, fortnightly bin collections, home information packs, bureaucracy at the bank, Royal Mail pricing rules, the axing of many rural bus routes, fewer training hours for doctors, higher food and electricity bills, and two thirds of all new business regulations.

By belonging to the EU, we in Britain have lost control of our agriculture, our fishing grounds, our external trade, decisions about VAT, aspects of employment law, immigration, and our internal trading standards – including weights and measures. Under the Lisbon Treaty, ratified by our Labour Government, we will increasingly lose control of our policing and internal security, as well as of our defence and foreign policy.

Britain’s voting power within EU institutions like the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament is now only about 8% of the total. Article 308 of the newly ratified Lisbon Treaty will, from now on, allow the EU to increase its power over us without having to obtain the prior consent of its national parliaments and electorates, including ourselves.

WHAT EU MEMBERSHIP COSTS US(1)

EU taxes and trade barriers, and our obligation to subsidise less efficient European farmers, restricts our trade with the rest of the world and increases our cost of living. EU regulations also hamper British businesses and wealth and job creation. The result, according to recent studies, is that we are paying a heavy economic price for losing control over the laws and decisions governing our lives.

To quote some key statistics:

● Between 1973 and 2007, Britain contributed a net sum of £66.3 billion to the EU Budget.

● The EU’s Common Agricultural Policy now costs Britain a net annual sum of at least £15.6 billion.

● The Common Fisheries Policy costs us at least £2.5 billion per year.

● Damaging EU regulations cost British businesses at least £26 billion per annum.

The total net annual cost to Britain of EU membership is around £50.6 billion, equivalent to £843 for every man, woman and child in this country.

COUNTERING EU PROPAGANDA

It is not true that the establishment of the European Union has brought peace to a previously war-torn continent. That was achieved by the Allied victory over Hitler in 1945, the destruction of Nazism and Fascism, and the creation of NATO in 1949.

It is not true that national sovereignty is an obstacle to a better and more peaceful Europe and world. Power-hungry rulers and dictatorships have been the main cause of war down the centuries, not self-governing liberal democracies(2).

It is not true that 60% of Britain’s trade and 3 million jobs depend on our continued EU membership. Only 48% of our exports of goods and services go to EU countries, which represents only 10% of our total economy. Since, by contrast, EU countries enjoy a large surplus on their trade with Britain, they need our custom more than we need theirs and would not stop trading with us if we left the EU.

WHY BRITAIN CAN PROSPER OUTSIDE THE EU

We would not be ‘isolated’ if we left the EU since more than three quarters of Britain’s overseas assets are in countries outside the EU and roughly 60% of our total external trade (goods, services, and investment income) goes to countries outside the EU. Since non-EU countries like Switzerland and Mexico have negotiated free trade agreements with the EU, so could we, especially since the EU would not be allowed to raise tariff barriers against us under World Trade Organisation rules.

Leaving the EU could save our economy £50 billion a year, allowing us to cut taxes or spend more money on transport, defence or our public services. Instead of paying our £10.2 billion annual contribution to Brussels, for instance, we could use the money to cut council tax by nearly 50%, or employ an extra 320,000 nurses.

If successful nations like Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Norway, Switzerland and Singapore, can flourish without abandoning their national sovereignty, so can we.

UKIP is the only major party committed to liberating Britain from the EU straitjacket.

To find out more, ring the UK Independence Party on 0800 587 6587 or visit www.ukip.org/

(1) Gerard Batten MEP, How much does the European Union cost Britain? UKIP, 2007

(2) Professor R.J. Rummel, Power Kills, Transaction Publishers, 1997

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