John Bufton, David Campbell Bannerman, Derek Roland Clark, William (The Earl of) Dartmouth and Nigel Farage (EFD ), in writing:

In voting for this measure, there is no endorsement of the system of VAT. What is clear is that the timetable set for the introduction of an electronic refund procedure and a single refund request was in practice unrealistic – and many taxpayers and small businesses might lose as a consequence. This essential measure recognises this and, in doing so, recognises the central role of Member States – arguably hands power back to them if only for six months. It also stops an unrealistic timetable causing the UK’s and other Member States’ SMEs from financially suffering due to EU incompetence. For these reasons, we are voting for it.

William (The Earl of) Dartmouth, Nigel Farage and Paul Nuttall (EFD ), in writing:

The amendment allows the many people in the EU, and the MEPs who represent them, to signal their unhappiness and opposition to Turkish membership and the concomitant political union. However, we do not want this to be at the expense of supporting free trade with Turkey – and without tariff barriers – so much of the report is unchanged. Many choices are invidious: free-trade agreements allow tariff barriers. Customs Unions eliminate them internally but continue to allow and even erect them externally. And, of course, customs unions limit and prohibit members’ freedom of commercial negotiation. Despite these concerns about customs unions, we are, in the context of Turkish circumstances, running with the Customs Union because it allows those against Turkish membership to register their vote. It should be noted that in the event only 38 MEPs out of 736 put their vote against Turkey entering Political Union

Derek Roland Clark (EFD ), in writing:

UKIP voted against the Alvaro report today because we do not want to give the EU greater power over personal data. This measure will lead to a gross violation of personal privacy. Confidential and private financial data belongs to the individual and not to the EU or the European Parliament.

We are resolutely opposed to the spread of terrorism, but personal confidentiality must be protected where there is no prior suggestion of wrong-doing. If the UK is to enter into an agreement with the US it must be a fully reciprocal arrangement and not the almost one-way-traffic one that the EU has signed up to here. This is a matter for national governments to decide, and not for the European Parliament.

A7-0109/2010

Renate Sommer

John Bufton, David Campbell Bannerman, Derek Roland Clark and Nigel Farage (EFD ), in writing:

UKIP voted against the Sommer Report in the European Parliament because it is a sloppily-drafted dog’s dinner which does not clearly support country of origin labelling for simple foods like meats and eggs. UKIP policy is to support country of origin labelling to help producers selling their goods and for consumers to know with certainty where their food is coming from. We have rejected the report because it fails to defend the interests of farmers and consumers, while allowing large retailers to confuse the consumer. The rapporteur herself has stated she is afraid the proposal is moving too fast. UKIP believe MEPs are acting without sufficient information on this matter.

Gerard Batten, John Bufton, David Campbell Bannerman, Trevor Colman and Nigel Farage (EFD ), in writing:

UKIP do not support cancellation of debt on the basis that it is economically unsound on the following points: 1. A creditor nation is usually a debtor nation. For example, the UK is a significant donor of overseas aid. Yet the UK, and therefore its tax payers, are usually unwilling donors to aid recipients whilst debt mountains pile up for UK plc. 2. Debt cancellation impairs Third World debtor countries from raising further international finance. Therefore, it is not in the debtor nation’s interest. 3. Debt cancellation introduces moral hazard. What of Third World countries which meet debt obligations, of which there are many? 4. Cancellation implicitly condones fraud, corruption and the misappropriation of loans so endemic in African debtor countries. 5. Given the massive debt now of most international economies, who arbitrates where cancellation is appropriate? Further moral hazard.

Gerard Batten, John Bufton and Derek Roland Clark (EFD ), in writing:

UKIP regards the safety of nuclear power generation as being of great importance, but perceives the EU’s assistance to Bulgaria, ostensibly for this purpose, as being motivated by political considerations (preventing the reprocessing of fissile material, conveniently close to Bulgaria, in neighbouring Russia) and doctrinaire ones (the imposition of unrealistic wind-power policies) as well as by a desire to fund local conservation projects, which are not relevant to the remit of decommissioning. Consequently, UKIP members have voted against the extra funding asked for in this report.

John Bufton and David Campbell Bannerman (EFD ), in writing:

We oppose the Union for the Mediterranean. This would facilitate mass immigration from impoverished countries in North Africa. It would also allow North African al-Qaeda operatives in these countries to more easily enter Europe and carry out terrorist attacks. We also note the way the EU grants Morocco privileged economic status, despite that country’s violent occupation of Western Sahara and the plundering of its resources.

Gerard Batten, John Bufton, David Campbell Bannerman and Derek Roland Clark (EFD ), in writing:

UKIP believes that ongoing development and improvement in the present international network of facilities and agencies for organ exchange will not be facilitated by the EU’s attempts to invade and regulate this network. On the contrary, organ donation in the few countries where there are many donors is likely to decrease if demand for organs from the many countries where there are few donors becomes EU-mandatory. In the latter countries, moreover, the resulting relative abundance of foreign organs is likely to reduce organ donation there also. Consequently, UKIP members voted against this report.

Derek Roland Clark (EFD ), in writing:

UKIP voted against the report on simplification of the CAP because, although the implementation of the report would make the policy more comprehensible, transparent and workable, simplifying farm inspection, adding to flexibility to payment arrangements and making it more farmer friendly, to do so is to keep the CAP on track and potentially help to extend it for another generation! UKIP therefore voted against the resolution as a whole, especially as it is without legislative impact.

David Campbell Bannerman (EFD ), in writing:

We voted against this report in accordance with UKIP principles and on the basis that we support legislation only where it limits the power of the EU or returns it to nation states. Any amendments that we felt unnecessarily harmed British farmers were not supported, as were any amendments that expanded EU control in this sector. UKIP will continue to defend the interests of British farmers against EU interference, as we feel the British agricultural sector is perfectly capable of running its own affairs, and already has high standards of both quality and safety. UKIP opposes the way CAP has historically been used in corrupt ways (e.g. phantom vineyards) or the way it is used to top-up the income of certain politicians in EU countries who own ‘farms’. UKIP also objects to being forced to subsidise farms in other parts of Europe, which compete with our own farmers. UKIP is committed to trade in agricultural produce, under the terms of WTO rules.

Gerard Batten (EFD ) - Mr President, I would like to give an explanation of the vote on the Hennis-Plasschaert report – the so-called ‘SWIFT report’ – dealing with terrorist finance tracking.

I think the vote was confusing, even by the standards of this place. We voted, I believe, not to vote, and then voted to send the report back to committee. I wanted to vote to withhold my consent to the conclusion of the agreement. However, I certainly did not want to vote in favour of paragraph 2 of the report, which was to submit recommendations for a long-term agreement under the legal framework of the Lisbon Treaty.

I do not want any agreement or any agreements under the Lisbon Treaty. The Lisbon Treaty is in contravention of the Bill of Rights of 1689 and England’s other constitutional acts, which have not been expressly repealed and which remain in force. Because of this, England – and, indeed, the United Kingdom – is now living under an illegally constituted government.

Stuart Agnew, David Campbell Bannerman, Derek Roland Clark and William, Earl of Dartmouth (EFD ), in writing:

UKIP fully supports the relief efforts and is horrified at the loss of life and those affected by the disaster, but we cannot support legitimising the EU in spending hundreds of millions of taxpayers' money, along with its militaristic and diplomatic ambition to circumvent democratic and accountable nation states intervening in the crisis.

Of course we encourage government and individuals to give relief and money to help those affected and rebuild the country. However, this must be done transparently with the public and not by secretive, unelected bureaucrats with international ambitions of grandeur.
 

Gerard Batten (EFD ) - Mr President, I voted against the Commission because I do not want to be governed by a European Commission of any composition, but there are particular reasons for voting against this one. A number of its Members were members of the Communist Party, or were associated with it. For example, they include Mr Barroso, Mr Šefčovič, Mr Füle, Mr Piebalgs and Mr Potočnik, to name just a few. Baroness Ashton was treasurer of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, which was little better than a Communist-front organisation, and a proportion of its funding came from the Soviet bloc.

She is not fit to be responsible for foreign security and defence policy. The noble Baroness worked to undermine the defence policy of her own country when we faced the gravest threat – a nuclear threat – from our enemies. The Commission is the new de facto government of the European Union. Europe is sleep-walking towards disaster. We are now governed by communists, collaborators and quislings.

26.11.2009

Industry, Research and Energy

Nigel Farage, in writing:

I acknowledge the very real need for a bluetongue vaccine, and note the unhelpful attitude of the UK Government on this important issue. This report contained provisions related to this situation. However, this report also contained provisions totally unrelated to farming, which would have had a disastrous impact on the UK.

In particular, this report called for funding to Eurojust and Europol, agencies that operate outside of the boundaries acceptable to British law. It is contemptible that the EU attempts to bury such provisions in these types of reports, and then requires MEPs to vote on them as a whole and not individual parts. Thus, I could not in good conscience support such a report, which explains my vote on the subject.