The European Union

Know your Enemy

We don’t hate Europe and we don’t hate Europeans, we only have a problem with the unelected, undemocratic European Union, which is taking control of our lives without our agreement and in violation of our constitution – namely the Bill of Rights / Declaration of Rights 1689.

Several of our politicians have committed acts of TREASON in signing away our national sovereignty, by signing the various EU treaties against the will of the British people.

Edward Heath may have had a referendum, but he signed away much more than people realised, it was always much more than a common trading agreement.

It is very important that people understand what our campaign is about. We have absolutely no problem with the countries of Europe, and absolutely no problem with the people of Europe, to suggest otherwise is disingenuous and totally untrue.

Our problem is with the undemocratic and bureaucratic monster that is currently called the EU.

We want to leave the EU; we don’t want to leave Europe that would be a rather ludicrous idea. We wish to maintain and develop peaceful and mutually beneficial relationships with our European neighbours, but on our terms, not based on some rules and regulations foisted upon us by unelected bureaucrats.

The original idea of the European Common market was in principle quite sound, but somewhere along the way it has morphed into an unmitigated disaster.

EU Member States

Composition of European Parliament 2009

The parliamentarians are known in English as Members of the European Parliament (MEP). They are elected every five years by universal adult suffrage and sit according to political allegiance; about a third are women. Before 1979 they were appointed by their national parliaments.

Remuneration for MEP’s at the beginning of the new parliamentary session in 2009 was:

• Salary £83,000, taxed at 20% maximum
• Daily subsistence allowance of £265
• Travel allowance of £3,600 per annum
• Staff salaries & office expenses of £242,000 per annum

Under the Lisbon Treaty, seats are allocated to each state according to population and the maximum number of members is set at 751 (however, as the President cannot vote while in the chair there will only be 750 voting members at any one time).

The seats are distributed according to “degressive proportionality”, i.e., the larger the state, the more citizens are represented per MEP. Thus, Maltese and Luxembourgian voters have roughly 10x more influence than citizens of the six large countries.

Germany (82.5 million inhabitants) has 96 seats, i.e. one seat for 859,000 inhabitants. Malta (0.4 million inhabitants) has 6 seats, i.e. one seat for 67,000 inhabitants.

The current President is German Martin Schulz

Members of the seventh European Parliament:

Group of the European People’s Party EPP
Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats S&D
Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe ALDE
European Greens–European Free Alliance GREENS-EFA
European Conservatives and Reformists ECR
European United Left–Nordic Green Left GUE-NGL
Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy  EFD
Non-Inscrits (52)

Institutes and politics of EU

The European Union has seven institutions:

the European Parliament,

the Council of the European Union,

the European Commission,

the European Council,

the European Central Bank,

the Court of Justice of the European Union and

the European Court of Auditors.

Competencies in scrutinising and amending legislation are divided between the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union while executive tasks are carried out by the European Commission and in a limited capacity by the European Council (not to be confused with the aforementioned Council of the European Union). The monetary policy of the Eurozone is governed by the European Central Bank. The interpretation and the application of EU law and the treaties are ensured by the Court of Justice of the European Union. The EU budget is scrutinised by the European Court of Auditors. There are also a number of ancillary bodies which advise the EU or operate in a specific area.