Cllr. Gavin Ayling

A lot of people are confused about euroscepticism. They think, variously, that it is a dislike of foreigners, a belief that thatched cottages and the rag and bone man are things that should be reintroduced; they think it’s a dislike of the idea of Europe or a failure to face up to the problems that globalisation presents.

It is, in the main, none of these things. The notion of European nations working together to reduce costs by working to similar standards and with only one set of bureaucrats in specific areas of policy are laudable aims.

But sadly that’s not what today’s EU gives us. It gives us more bureaucrats; it gives us a less competitive edge against the Chinas, Indias and USAs of this world; and it just does not work.

A case in point is the location of the European Parliament. It is, according to the Amsterdam Treaty, to be based in Strasbourg. As one of the South East’s MEPs said recently, Strasbourg is not the ideal place for the Parliament and so, except for four days each month, the Parliament meets in Brussels. Everyone knows that Brussels is the home of the European apparatus.

So what about those four days I mentioned? Each month the whole shebang travels to Strasbourg including a whole fleet of lorries and chartered planes. This is a 240 mile trip to nowhere which, if it wasn’t so illogical, would still be awful for the environment. So why isn’t it changed?

Because one of the EU’s biggest problems is its structure. It has several parts to its government including the Parliament but the Parliament is very, very weak. Turnout for the EU Parliament elections is low, and people blame this on a lack of knowledge about the EU and its institutions, but if the institution’s relative weakness was known by all, I suspect turnouts would not increase!

The structure causes a very particular problem — The EU Parliament cannot make a decision about the monthly trip to Strasbourg because it is in the Amsterdam Treaty which must be amended by the European Council. The European Council (note: not the Council of Europe which is something else entirely and not even an EU institution) consists of the leaders of the nations of the EU. So all the leaders (Prime Ministers, Presidents etc) must agree to this change.

Apparently, and this surprises me as you can imagine, the French President is against this change!

So while the Parliament (which is the only directly democratic part of the EU) is powerless, so are we. But we can sign the petition here!