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•  Speaking in the Strasbourg Hemicycle today, UKIP MEP Marta Andreasen said that although "the EU bureaucracy immediately looks around to find someone to blame, the fact is that it is this bureaucracy that is responsible for the crisis because it brought countries into the Eurozone in the knowledge that their economies were not up to speed."

"The hedge funds may be taking advantage of the situation but they did not cause this crisis," Ms Andreasen added during the debate on 'reinforcing (EU) economic governance'.

By John Bufton MEP
• As the camera trained upon the two lecterns in the rose garden of 10 Downing Street, panning across the congregation of journalists in two seating blocks, one almost expected Mr and Mr Camerclegg to come bouncing up the aisle under a flurry of confetti to Mendelssohn's Wedding March.

What we got wasn't far off a Civil Partnership ceremony. But the question is, how can a coalition of Lib Dems and Conservatives operate in Brussels when the two inhabit such diametrically different groups? Friends in Westminster, enemies in Europe, would not make sense if both purport to work in the interests of the country.

• 'Never waste a good crisis', they say, and the EU Commission lost no time in proposing a 'remedy' to the current economic crisis.

In a 'Communication' [COM(2010)250] it released May 12 the Commission says the crisis has exposed the weaknesses in the European Monetary Union (EMU) and offers a solution that would enable the EU to take effective control of member states' economies through EU-level coordination and intervention.

• With David Cameron now confirmed as Britain's Prime Minister, Lord Pearson has warned him not to get ideas above his station.

The UKIP leader said: "David Cameron may now be our Prime Minister but he is not the head of our Government. He is merely the managing director of the UK part of the European Union.

"Now he and his party have leapt into bed with the Liberal Democrats, any pretence that they will staunch the flow of our freedoms and liberties to Brussels must be forgotten.

• British plans to improve the banking industry as a result of the financial crisis could be in tatters as EU bureaucrats attempt to take charge of all banks operating in the UK.

The European Parliament's Economic Affairs Committee has put forward proposals to set up a European Super-Regulator to control the activities of banks across the EU.

The Committee's text, released yesterday, "creates a power to supervise directly systemically-important cross-border financial institutions, whereby national supervisors would act as agents of the EU authority."

• Fury amongst the rank and file membership of the Conservative Party is likely if they reach agreement with the Liberal Democrats after turning down a UKIP deal which would have given them a majority of three, UKIP Chairman Paul Nuttall MEP said today.

The deal, which would have seen UKIP not stand in return for a pledge from David Cameron to hold a binding referendum on Britain’s EU membership, was turned down by the Conservatives. The UKIP vote exceeded the amount the Conservatives lost by in 21 constituencies, enough to have given them an overall majority of three.

• Less than six months after the Lisbon treaty took effect, the UK may be forced to pay towards other EU countries' huge deficits, because of a little known clause it contains.

Britain's next chancellor will not be able to opt-out of underwriting £13 billion of EU debts, because the EU's decision to help indebted Europeans was taken under the treaty's "exceptional occurrences'' clause that has stripped Britain of its previous power of veto.

UKIP Chairman Paul Nuttall MEP said: "Why is it at the time the UK needs to spend every penny it can on reducing it's own deficit, we are instead going to spend £13 billion on bailing out other countries? I'll tell you why, it's because we signed up to the Lisbon treaty.

"UKIP warned about the dangers of the Lisbon Treaty before Brown condemned the country to it.

• UKIP MEP and President of the Europe of Freedom and Democracy Group Nigel Farage was injured this morning in a plane crash in Northampton.

Local reports indicate that Mr Farage was cut free from the wreckage and taken to hospital in Banbury, where his injuries are described as 'non-life threatening'. The pilot has more serious injuries and has been taken to a specialist spinal injuries unit in Coventry.

Mr Farage was a passenger in a plane towing a banner advising people to 'Vote UKIP'. The aircraft, believed to be a PZL Ozecie PZL-104, was operated by Skybanners Ltd.

UKIP leader Lord Pearson said: “We confirm that Nigel Farage has been moved from Banbury to the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford. We understand there was no pressing medical need for this transfer. He has been visited by his wife.

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• The European Investment Bank (EIB) does not create jobs, but exports jobs and imports unemployment, UKIP MEP Marta Andreasen told Euro-Parliamentarians in Brussels today.

Speaking during the debate on the European Investment Bank's 'Annual Report 2008', Ms Andreasen said she was struck by how projects financed by the EIB involve mostly large companies and few SMEs (small and medium sized enterprises).

"Do companies such as General Motors, Electrolux and Arcelor Mittal really need to use the EIB except for the soft terms they offer?" Ms Andreasen asked.

"And what have such loans done for the European economy? Have they created jobs? No. They have exported jobs, sometimes to cheaper European countries, and sometimes outside the EU altogether."

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• Hundreds of MEPs and Parliamentary staff embarked upon the monthly commute to the European Parliament in Strasbourg, only to find out that voting was called off at the last minute due flight disruptions, despite hundreds of staff from 27 countries having managed to make their way across the continent by rail and road.

Speaking in the Hemicycle in Strasbourg, UKIP (Wales) MEP John Bufton challenged Parliamentary President Jerzy Buzek over the confusion.

"The cost runs into millions of pounds to the taxpayer for us all being here, and yet you decide to cancel with just a moment's notice. I think it's absolutely abysmal what you've done."

However, concerns about MEP absences were clearly not at the fore when voting was rescheduled for the 5th and 6th of May, clashing with the UK General Election.

• "Once again the EU has shown that its 'one-size-fits-all' policy agenda is a disaster," said UKIP MEP Nigel Farage today.  "The volcano ash is a problem, but the frenzied desire of the EU for more centralised control over the aviation sector is an even greater one," he said.

Speaking from Buckingham, where he is standing in the Westminister election, Farage said, "It is the EU's Single European Sky policy which makes the aviation industry's guidelines now mandatory.

"Because of EU hyper-regulation, not even the skies are free anymore. I hope that the many people stranded away from home, and the airlines which have lost many millions in this EU debacle will now put the blame for needlessly grounded flights where it belongs. UKIP will reclaim national competence of British air space by pulling Britain out of the EU. In aviation terms, it is the only way forward.