More Examples of EU Waste At this Link

*****     Tuesday, 23rd December 2008     *****

Santa may have had some difficulty getting around this year.  He had enough trouble in 2007, with  the Scottish executive demanding all fur be registered as per Regulation (EC) 338/97 restrictions on importation. Then Rudolf the red-nosed reindeer broke methane emissions regulations over Ulster, Santa left carbon footprints on a hearth in Wales and he was deeply offensive to women in England when he said "Ho Ho Ho". Back in Lapland, his elves had to contend with the working time directive, the ongoing argument about whether they have human rights and, of course, with elf and safety. Santa also has his multiple identities to account for as Claus, Saint Nicholas and Papa Noël, and why he's living in Finnish Lapland when he was born in Turkey.

The new problem, however, is far more serious. It's to do with Rudolf, and I don't mean his disability discrimination case against the other reindeer for laughing and calling him names. Rudolf his wild reindeer buddies are dying out in Finland courtesy of the EU. Soon Santa will have no one to pull his sleigh.

Rudolf is on the run because the EU decided wolves are an endangered species. It has banned wolf hunting. In Italy the 500 remaining wolves remind the misty-eyed population of the capital city of former greatness (i.e. before AD451).  In Spain and Portugal, the combined population of 2,400 wolves rarely visit Marbella or the Algarve. Even in Swedish Lapland the ban is not a problem unless you are a reindeer herdsman wanting to supply the supermarket rather than feed the wolves.

Finnish Lapland is another matter. It has a border with Russia and Russia's wolf population is such a problem that bounty hunters were called in. Wolves are clever and they had no trouble digging tunnels under Finland's "patchy" border fence. They now benefit from EU endangered species status while they hunt down another endangered species, Finnish wild reindeer.

The EU has issued only six wolf hunting licences in the problem areas. The bureaucrats compare road kills of reindeer (2,500 animals in 2002) to 200-300 officially killed by wolves in 2002. However, in a rugged country like Finland dead reindeer on the road are a lot easier to count than chewed bones scattered in the woods.  It's also a lot easier to jump inside a car than hug your way up a tree when wolves arrive.

Oddly enough, no vegetarian carrot-leather shod EU ecologist has been sensible enough to suggest that a clampdown on Finnish drink driving would actually be of more use to the reindeer than endangered species status – which has effectively done what is says on the label and, well... endangered them.

Whatever the true figures, the Russo-Finnish wolf population has had six years to expand since 2002. In Finnish border towns parents heading for the shops have found wolf tracks following their kids' footprints to school. A mother found paw prints leading to her baby's pram left on the porch. Nothing, though, can be done to change the EU rules until there is real evidence of a problem – and the last "real evidence" is church records from the severe winter of 1823, when wolves took 23 Finnish children.

Once again it is the EU's obsession with having a one-size-fits-all policy is at fault.  Finland is not like Italy or Spain or even Sweden. Controlling the local and migrant wolf population, and protecting wild reindeer, should be a Finnish matter.

Spare a thought for Finnish parents watching over their children at play, with a shotgun to hand, this Christmas.

RALPH ATKINSON

Post offices: point the finger at Brussels
Monday, 17 March 2008
There is a continuous stream of media coverage about the battle to save post offices but the great elephant in the room, the role of the European Union, is mysteriously never mentioned, writes Jeffrey Titford, UK Independence Party MEP for Eastern Counties.

Did you know that the government has to go to the European Commission, cap in hand, for permission to subsidise the Post Office? Since 2003, the Commission has frozen the subsidy the government can pay to cover the loss-making parts of the service, like small local post offices in urban and rural areas, at £150 million per annum.

On 29th November 2007, the Commission authorised the government’s public funding plans for the Post Office for the period 1st April 2008 to 31st March 2011. It is a total package of £634 million but the amount to cover the loss-making part of the operation remains frozen at £150 million per annum. The rest of the money must be used to fund a loan facility so that cash services at counters can be provided and to cover the cost of the government’s closure programme.

It is clear that the British government is no longer in control and neither is Royal Mail, though both take the flack, when closures are announced. The reality is that because it has frozen the annual £150 million subsidy for so long, the European Commission is responsible for post office closures. With inflation, the subsidy becomes worth less each year, so more post offices have to close.

I have considerable concern about the new proposals from Essex County Council and other local authorities, who are looking at taking over post offices from Royal Mail. Will the EU approve of this arrangement? It constitutes state aid and will presumably be over and above the package agreed with Brussels. We don’t want to spend large amounts of public money on setting up council run post offices, only for the EU to say “naughty, naughty you can’t do that.”

You might also like to know that the European Parliament approved the new EU Postal Directive on 31st January 2008, which means that from 1st January 2011, the market in postal delivery must be fully opened up to competition. There will be no more national monopolies like Royal Mail. Parcel and package deliveries are already open to competition but this new ruling will, for the first time, include letters under 50 grams or 1.75 ounces.

This ‘liberalisation’ of the market is dressed up as being of great benefit to the consumer but it really means that competitors will cherry pick the best parts of the Royal Mail service and it will be left with the unprofitable bits, like rural deliveries. Once the Royal Mail is out of the picture, costs to the consumer will inevitably rise and quality may suffer.

It is time for a reality check in the great Post Office debate. Let’s point the finger in the right direction – Brussels.

Published in the East Anglian Daily Times

Tangled Tories get nets in a knot over fishing 06-09-2006

The Conservative Party's fisheries policy became even more tangled today (6.9.06), as Conservative MEP Struan Stevenson confirmed his Party’s intention to remain within the Common Fisheries Policy, despite saying it was a ‘disaster’.

Mr Stevenson, highlighting his ability to face both ways at the same time, stated that CFP withdrawal might still be an ultimate sanction, before confirming that withdrawal would be illegal under the terms of EU membership. As chairman of the European Parliament’s fisheries committee, he was responsible for requesting that the CFP be included in the failed EU Constitution.

Nigel Farage MEP, UKIP’s representative on the fisheries committee, described Mr Stevenson’s comments as ‘Janus like’ and said: “The Conservative Party have really got their nets in a knot over the fisheries policy.  Mr Stevenson’s comments simply highlight the tangle at the heart of Tory policy.

“They need to retain a Eurosceptic image while supporting Europhile policies.  Who better to defend their Blue Labour image than an MEP who supported the idea that the EU Constitution needed to cover more areas?”.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Not Negotiable 16-01-2007

Mr Cameron said the next Tory government would opt out of the European Social Chapter. But this provoked a scathing response from the Ukip leader, Nigel Farage: "Britain cannot just 'opt-out' of the Social Chapter because it's now part of the Treaty of Amsterdam and fully enshrined in EU law, which the Conservative Party is fully committed to."

Burning the midnight oil 31-05-2007

Dalkeith High School in Midlothian has been unused since 2003. In spite of this, the Council has spent £13,000 maintaining it, of which £3,000 on lighting alone.

"Some lights - including some on timers - are left on during the winter months to protect potential intruders from fall hazards," said a spokesman for Midlothian Council.

Not just a waste, but also helping vandals! How daft can you get?

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In case you are wondering what "Family Milk Chocolate" is: 02-06-2007

Belgium, France and other continental countries hate UK milk chocolate, because of its high content of milk fat (up to 20%) and vegetable fat (up to 5%).

When the UK joined the EEC in 1973, it secured an opt out from the Cocoa and Chocolate Products Directive, which would have outlawed our types of chocolate. It has always been difficult for UK chocolate makers to sell their product on the continent.

There was a plan by the EEC (as it was then known) to harmonise the chocolate regulations, and french campaigners were calling for UK chocolate to be renamed "Vegelate" and not be allowed to be called chocolate.

Only recently has harmonisation been introduced at the initiative of the European Commission and ratified by the European Parliament a couple of weeks ago. Fortunately we don't have to rename our chocolate as "vegelate". It now has to be called "Family Milk Chocolate" or its nearest equivalent in the local language (Haushaltsmilchschokolade in German, or in French chocolat de ménage au lait). It does mean that at last UK chocolate can be easily sold on the continent.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

FRAUD 07-10-2007

Did you know that the EU's own financial regulation 2342/2002 Article 87 (4) says that there is no need to attempt recovery of any sum less than 1 million euros?!

Current levels of Fraud are estimated at £220 million per year.

Last update 3rd July 2010