13th June 2012: In his fifth contribution of the current Plenary Session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, this morning Andrew Brons spoke during the debate on The Multi-annual Financial Framework*.
He told his fellow MEPs:
"Paying for Growth is not like paying for a product. You might pay your money without receiving what you have paid for. In the 2008-14 MFF 44.4% of the EU Budget is being spent on "Sustainable Growth (that will go up to 48% in the 2014-2020 MFF). Is it really being spent effectively? Does the EU really know how to spend member states' money better than they do?
"The European Union's embrace of Globalism and Neo-Liberal Economics of open markets and maximised competition will defeat any strategy for growth.
"As Sir James Goldsmith said a decade ago: the only way the West would compete with the Emergent Economies in a Free Market would be by our wage levels equaling theirs.
"It is all very well to think that our Research and Development will make our industries more competitive but innovation spreads by industrial piracy countries of the Far East and industrial treachery by Western based Multi-Nationals.
"The Commission's Europe 2020 document waxed lyrically about Europe's talented work forces but that presupposed that the present populations of Europe would survive and would not be replaced by immigration."
* This is the major overhaul of the EU Budget negotiated at seven year intervals.
