19th April 2012: Yesterday at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, Andrew Brons addressed MEPs using the the Catch the Eye procedure during a debate on the Co-ordination of Social Security systems.

He said:

"In the European Parliament, whatever the matter being debated, all roads lead to the same place - further and deeper political and economic integration.

"In the early days of what was the EEC, we were told that there was freedom of movement of labour - the right to work in other countries. If work could not be found or if one's job disappeared, people would come home. We are now moving towards freedom of movement of claimants.

"This co-ordination is portrayed as a safety net for hardworking, enterprising, self-employed people who fall on hard times. In fact, its motivation is to support not people but a political objective - the maximisation of the movement of people to undermine national identities.

In the words of the Rapporteur: "Without such co-ordination, there would be a risk that freedom of movement would be inoperable".

"In this field as in all others, the measures are not to satisfy an autonomous demand to migrate, they are to create and empower that demand."