Ψηφοφόροι μου, απολύστε με από τη Βουλή"
Το μετέφρασε ο π.ευρωβουλευτής Μ.Στυλιανού και δημοσιεύθηκε στη Daily Mail. Πρόκειται για τον Σκωτσέζο Ευρωβουλευτή Daniel Hannah, ο οποίος είναι "ευρωσκεπτικιστής". Ανήκει σε αυτούς, που πιστεύουν ότι η Ε.Ε. πρέπει να διαλυθεί ή να αλλάξει δραστικά. Στο άρθρο του εξηγεί γιατί θα ψηφίσει ΝΑΙ στο δημοψήφισμα για έξοδο της Μεγάλης Βρετανίας από την Ε.Ε.
« Απολύστε με!
Θα χαθούν θέσεις εργασίας όταν ένα έθνος αποφασίσει να εγκαταλείψει την Ευρωπαϊκή ΄Ενωση; Μόνο τη δική μου.
Είμαι Ευρωβουλευτής και απλά σας ζητώ ψηφίζοντας στο δημοψήφισμα,
βοηθήστε να απαλλαγώ από την άνετη και ακριβοπληρωμένη θέση μου.
Παρακαλώ, απολύστε με.
Ακόμη θυμάμαι το σοκ της πρώτης ημέρας μου στις Βρυξέλλες. Μόλις
βρήκα το γραφείο μου, μια εξυπηρετική κυρία μου ζήτησε το αεροπορικό μου
εισιτήριο για να μου επιστραφούν τα χρήματα. Μου μέτρησαν ποσό τόσο
μεγάλο ώστε πίστεψα ότι έγινε λάθος. «Μα από το Λονδίνο ήρθα,» εξήγησα.
«Δεν είναι λάθος, Μεσιέ», απάντησε πεταχτά. «Αυτή είναι η χιλιομετρική
ταρίφα από το Λονδίνο». «Μα κανείς δεν πληρώνει τόσα για την πτήση
Χήθροου- Βρυξέλλες», διαμαρτυρήθηκα. «Τόσα καθορίζει το κοστολόγιο», με
διέκοψε η κυρία.
Οι ευρωβουλευτές ταξιδεύουν από τις περιφέρειές τους στις Βρυξέλλες ή
στο Στρασβούργο ( η Ευρωβουλή συνεδριάζει εναλλάξ στις δύο πόλεις, με
τεράστιο κόστος), εισπράττουν το αντίτιμο του ακριβώτερου εισιτηρίου και
επιπλέον «επίδομα χρόνου και αποστάσεως». Και ταξιδεύοντας στην
ακριβώτερη θέση, κερδίζεις ένα στρογγυλό ποσό. Αν διαλέξεις φτηνή πτήση,
μπορείς να τσεπώνεις 1.000 ευρώ την εβδομάδα, αφορολόγητα.
Η επόμενη επίσκεψή μου ήταν στον αρμόδιο «γενικών εξόδων». Μου είπε
πως δικαιούμαι ένα γενικό επίδομα 3,500 λιρών (κάπου 4.000 ευρώ) τον
μήνα. « Είναι για ενοίκιο γραφείου;» ρώτησα. « Όχι, όχι. Σας δίνουμε
γραφείο στις Βρυξέλλες και στο Στρασβούργο», απάντησε. « Θα είναι τότε
για κομπιούτερ και υλικά», παρατήρησα. Όχι, τα έχετε και αυτά. Είναι για
τα περιστασιακά έξοδα, όπως ταχυδρομικά και βενζίνη.» « Σοβαρά μιλάτε;
Τρεισήμισι χιλιάδες λίρες τον μήνα;» «Ακριβώς έτσι, κύριε. Είναι ένα
επίδομα χωρίς δικαιολογητικά. Δεν χρειάζεται να κομίζετε αποδείξεις.
Απλώς σημειώσατε τον λογαριασμό όπου θα κατατίθενται.»
Γιατί σας εξιστορώ την πρώτη μέρα μου στην Ευρωβουλή; Επειδή εξηγεί
γιατί ζητώ να με απολύσετε. Τα «έξοδα» είναι μια συμβολική απεικόνιση
του χάσματος ανάμεσα στα θεωρητικά ιδεώδη και στις πρακτικές. Η ΕΕ
ιδρύθηκε για υψηλούς στόχους –ειρήνη και συνεργασία μεταξύ των εθνών-
και υποβόσκει ο πειρασμός να αμφιβάλεις για την αλήθεια.
Συχνά υποκρινόμαστε πως έχουμε να κάνουμε με κάποια φανταστική Ε Ε,
που υψώνεται πάνω από την αρπακτικότητα της πολιτικής και πραγματώνει
ένα υψηλό ιδεώδες. Θεωρείται σχεδόν κακό γούστο να εξετάζεις από κοντά
αυτήν την Ε Ε που διαμορφώθηκε μπροστά στα μάτια μας, με τους απατηλούς
λογαριασμούς της και με τα ιδιωτικά τζετ αεροπλάνα της.
Ο τρόπος αμοιβής των βουλευτών είναι ελάχιστο παράδειγμα του πως,
αντί να είναι ενάρετη, η Ευρωπαϊκή ΄Ενωση είναι στην κυριολεξία
διαφθορέας -δηλαδή μεταβάλει και χρηστούς ανθρώπους σε άτομα ελαστικής
ηθικής.
Ξέρω πολλούς Ευρωβουλευτές πού ήρθαν στις Βρυξέλλες όχι ενθουσιώδεις
για στενώτερη ενοποίηση, αλλά που ήπιαν άπληστα την ομοσπονδιακή θεωρία
και καταβρόχθισαν τα επιδόματά τους. Και ότι ισχύει για τους βουλευτές,
ισχύει για γιγάντιες πολυεθνικές, για τεράστιες φιλανθρωπικές ΜΚΟ, για
«Δεξαμενές Σκέψης» (λέσχες προβληματισμού), επαγγελματικά σωματεία, και
λομπίστες, που βγάζουν χρήματα από το σύστημα των Βρυξελλών. Αυτοί οι
άνθρωποι αποτελούν, όπως αντιλαμβάνεστε τους πραιτωριανούς της φρουράς
«να μείνουμε στην Ε.Ε» ( μετφ: παρ’ ημίν: «Να μείνουμε στο Ευρώ») Γι’
αυτούς το «να μείνουμε» δεν έχει σχέση με την εθνική κυριαρχία και τη
Δημοκρατία αλλά για ακίνητα και ακριβά σχολεία.
Για τη χώρα όμως, δεν υπάρχει αμφιβολία, ότι θα είμαστε καλύτερα έξω.
Δεν πρόκειται να φέρει άμεση ριζική αλλαγή της κατάστασης. Αλλά θα
αρχίσουμε να ακολουθούμε μια διαφορετική πορεία, πιο ανεξάρτητη από μια
Ευρωζώνη σε νευρικότητα και παρακμή και περισσότερο εστιασμένη στον
ευρύτερο κόσμο.
Και με την ανάκτηση της ανεξαρτησίας μας, θα ανακτήσουμε μιαν νέα συνείδηση προορισμού και νέα αισιοδοξία.
Εάν η Ε Ε ήταν για την διεθνή συνεργασία αντί της υπερεθνικής
καταπίεσης, κανένας δεν θα είχε τίποτα εναντίον της. Επίσης, εάν καλός
Ευρωπαίος είναι όποιος πιστεύει σε όσα ανύψωσαν τον ευρωπαϊκό πολιτισμό –
το Κράτος Δικαίου, την κοινοβουλευτική δημοκρατία, την προσωπική
ελευθερία- γράψτε με στον κατάλογο. Η διαφορά μου με την Ε Ε είναι πως
εγκατάλειψε αυτά τα ιδεώδη.
Αντί του Κράτους Δικαίου έχουμε την προστακτική της πολιτικής ένωσης. Αντί
της κοινοβουλευτικής δημοκρατίας, κυβερνώμεθα από μη εκλεγμένους
αξιωματούχους, που παίρνουν τις αποφάσεις τους μυστικά, συχνά κατόπιν
συμβουλών από λομπίστες επενδυμένων συμφερόντων. Αντί προσωπικής
ελευθερίας, έχουμε πλήθος στενοκέφαλων κανονισμών που μας κάνουν
φτωχότερους και λιγώτερο ελεύθερους.
Οι υποσχέσεις στις οποίες θεμελιώθηκε η Ε Ε αποδείχθηκαν ψεύτικες. Η
ενοποίηση υπετίθετο πως θα κάνει τους ανθρώπους πιο εύπορους, αλλά η Ε Ε
σημείωσε συνεχή πτώση, από το 30% της διεθνούς οικονομίας το 1980, στο
17% σήμερα.
Και μόνο το ευρώ και η συμφωνία Σένγκεν φθάνουν για την καταδίκη του
Ευρωπαϊκού Σχεδίου, αλλά οι σχεδιαστές συνεχίζουν μουλαρίσια να
επιμένουν σ’ αυτά: «Το ευρώ πρέπει να διατηρηθεί» -ανεξάρτητα του πόσο
κοστίζει σε ανεργία και χαμένη ανάπτυξη. Και «το Σένγκεν επίσης»
-ανεξαρτήτως επιπτώσεων στην ασφάλεια ή στη μοίρα των μεταναστών. Και
θέλουν να επεκτείνουν αυτή τη βλαμμένη λογική και σε άλλα πεδία,
βλέποντας την βαθύτερη ενσωμάτωση ως τη λύση, ενώ είναι το πρόβλημα.
Γι’ αυτό το δημοψήφισμα για την έξοδο είναι η ελπίδα μας.»
Please, please sack me! Euro MP DANIEL HANNAN on the money and perks he gets from Brussels for making Britons' lives harder... and why he is begging the nation to have the courage to put him out of a job
Will jobs be lost if we decide as a nation to leave the European Union? Only mine.
I am a British Member of the European
Parliament (MEP) and my simple plea to you when you vote in the
referendum in June is this: Help me abolish my well-remunerated and
comfortable position. Please, please sack me!
I still remember my utter, nerveless
shock on my first day in Brussels after being elected as the MEP for
South East England in 1999. Having found my office, I was invited by a
very helpful lady to hand in my plane ticket from London for
reimbursement.
Conservative MEP Daniel Hannan said his colleagues in Brussels receive lavish expenses from the taxpayer
The sum I was given in return was so
large I assumed there had been a mistake. ‘I’ve only come from
Heathrow,’ I explained. ‘No mistake, Monsieur,’ she replied brightly.
‘That’s the kilometre rate from London.’
I protested: ‘But there’s no way anyone
could spend that sum travelling here from London.’ She put me straight:
‘That’s how the rate is calculated.’
MEPs travelled from their constituencies
to either Brussels or Strasbourg (the European Parliament meets at
both, at vast expense) and were reimbursed on the basis of the priciest
notional fare, plus an extra ‘time and distance allowance’.
Even on a top business class fare, you
could make a tidy sum. If you flew EasyJet, you could trouser the better
part of £800 a week — tax-free, because it counted as expenses rather
than income.
My next call was to the ‘general expenses’ official, who told me I was entitled to nearly £3,500 a month as a bloc grant.
Daniel Hannan MEP, left, said he was astounded by the expenses on offer to his colleagues in Brussels
Was this to rent an office? I asked. No, no, he replied, we give you offices in Brussels and in Strasbourg.
‘For computers and equipment, then?’
‘No, you get that, too. It’s for other
incidental expenses like postage and petrol.’ ‘Seriously?
Three-and-a-half grand a month?’
‘As I say, sir, it’s an unconditional
grant. You don’t have to submit receipts. You just nominate which bank
account it goes into.’
T he bottom line — as I discovered — is
that, without doing anything improper, an MEP who makes full use of his
allowances can take home, net, considerably more than the British Prime
Minister.
Why am I telling you about my first day
at work? Because it’s a clue as to why I am inviting you to serve me
with my P45. The expenses are a neat demonstration of the gap between
theoretical ideals and practice. The EU was launched from exalted
motives — peace and co-operation among nations — and there can be a
temptation to give it the benefit of the doubt.
We often half-pretend that we are
dealing with some fantasy EU, one that rises above the grubbiness of
politics and embodies a lofty ideal. It seems almost bad taste to look
in too much detail at the one which has, in fact, taken shape before us,
with its dodgy accounts and its private jets.
The way in which MEPs are remunerated is
one small example of how, rather than being pure, the EU is often, in
the exact sense, corrupting — that is, it makes otherwise good people
behave in bad ways.
I know several MEPs who came to Brussels
without feeling especially strongly about closer integration, but who
drank in federalist assumptions as they guzzled down their allowances.
What is true of the MEPs is equally true
of the many giant corporations, mega-charities, think-tanks,
professional associations and lobbyists who make a living out of the
Brussels system. These groups are, as you might expect, the Praetorian
Guard of the Remain campaign.
For their executives, staying in the EU is not about sovereignty or democracy; it’s about mortgages and school fees.
For Britain as a whole, though, there’s
little doubt that we’ll be better off out. It won’t result in a radical
overnight transformation. But we’ll begin to follow a different
trajectory, less dependent on an enervated and declining eurozone and
more focused on the rest of the world.
Euro MEPs can trouser almost £800 a week tax free travelling from their constituency to Brussels, pictured
And, as our independence returns, a
renewed sense of purpose and optimism will return with it. That’s why
I’m more than happy to be made redundant by you, the voters.
I come to this conclusion not out of any
anti-European sentiment. I speak French and Spanish, and have lived and
worked all over the Continent.
I am someone who loves Europe. I am
Francophile, Germanophile, Hispanophile, Hellenophile, Italophile, and
yes, Lusophile (lover of Portugal).
But I’m not Europhile — not if that
means wanting to remain part of an essentially undemocratic, remote and
self-serving Brussels system.
I don’t object to the idea of
neighbouring countries coming together for mutual gain, arbitrating
their disputes peacefully and seeking to tackle cross-border problems
jointly.
If the EU were about international collaboration rather than supranational coercion, no one would have a problem with it.
Equally, if being a good European means
believing in the things that have elevated European civilisation — the
rule of law, parliamentary democracy, personal liberty — then sign me
up.
My quarrel with the EU has to do with its abandonment of these ideals.
Instead of the rule of law, we have the
imperative of political union. When the dots and commas of treaties
stand in the way of deeper integration, they are unhesitatingly set
aside.
Instead of parliamentary democracy,
we’re governed by unelected officials who reach their decisions in
secret, often after being lobbied by vested interests.
Instead of personal liberty, we have a mass of pettifogging regulation that makes us poorer as well as less free.
Of course, if the EU were simply about
trade and summits, there’d never have been any controversy, and we
wouldn’t now be holding a referendum. The trouble is that, in its
determination to jam its nations together, it recognises no distinction
between cross-border and domestic spheres.
Again and again, it has pursued
regulation as an end in itself — not in response to an identified need,
but as a step towards federation. Almost no aspect of national life is
untouched by Brussels rules.
In the very week that David Cameron
began his campaign to persuade Britain to remain in the EU, MEPs voted
to overturn Britain’s requirement that internet companies provide
filters so that parents of young children can screen out obscene sites —
a rule which, incidentally, had, after a passionate campaign by the
Mail, been brought in by the Prime Minister himself.
MEPs are entitled to a £3,500 a month bloc grant which is classed as 'general expenses' without receipts
Now, there are arguments for and against
porn filters. But the point is this: such issues ought to be decided by
our own elected representatives, whom we can then re-elect or otherwise
on the basis of their records.
How did internet pornography become an EU issue? Aspects of it might be global, but it is hard to see any European angle.
By the same token, why should it be up
to Brussels to ban traditional light bulbs and oblige us to have the
dimmer sort (many imported from China, at great cost to the
environment)? Or dictate to us about high-power vacuum cleaners,
hair-dryers, toasters and other electrical appliances?
It’s not that the EU is necessarily
wrong about all these things. But how did we reach the stage where such
issues are decided by a Continent-wide bureaucracy and then handed down
uniformly to 600 million people?
Again and again, matters where you would
think there was no European angle turn out to be within the
jurisdiction of Brussels. One of Mr Cameron’s first initiatives as Prime
Minister was to use the uncollected money in forgotten bank accounts to
fund charitable initiatives. He had to drop the idea because it
conflicted with EU law.
Because of Brussels, I am required to
drive my children around in booster seats until they reach either a
minimum height or 12 years of age. But I can’t for the life of me see
how this is an issue that needs to be imposed rigidly across 28 nations.
The list goes on and on. The hassle of
opening a bank account? That’s the EU’s Money Laundering Directive. The
end of weekly recycling collections? That’s the Landfill Directive. The
ban on minimum alcohol pricing? That’s the Technical Standards
Directive.
These laws are not agreements among states. They are the legislative acts of an entity that itself aspires to statehood.
The EU question comes down, in the end,
to the issue of legal supremacy. Who, ultimately, runs Britain? Can we
make our own laws, or must we recognise EU primacy?
Are we an independent country, co-operating with our neighbours, or a sub-unit within a larger European polity?
Legal supremacy is what distinguishes
the EU from every other international association. The European treaties
do not simply bind the 28 members as states, they create a new legal
order, with precedence over national laws, directly binding upon
individuals and businesses within each country.
The EU’s legal primacy could be
restricted to cross-border issues. It makes sense to agree common
standards for international economic activity, just as it makes sense to
have common rules for international dial codes, bank transfers and so
on.
But EU rules don’t stop at national
borders. They fall on all citizens and all firms, including small
enterprises that do no export business.
Seventy-nine per cent of business
activity in the United Kingdom is wholly internal. If you buy a
newspaper or have your hair cut, you are contributing to our domestic
GDP, but not to our international trade.
Most firms, indeed, trade within ten
miles of where they are sited. Of the 21 per cent of our GDP that
depends on overseas commerce, 10 per cent is accounted for by trade with
the EU, and 11 per cent by trade with the rest of the world. In other
words, for the sake of the 10 per cent of our economy that is linked to
the EU, we must apply 100 per cent of EU rules to 100 per cent of our
businesses.
And, even that 10 per cent figure will
soon be out of date. Our trade with the EU is in deficit and falling,
while our trade with the rest of the world is in surplus and rising.
According to Daniel Hannan, the main issue at question, is who runs Britain, Westminster or the EU
The promises on which the EU was built
have proved false. European integration was supposed to make people
wealthier, but the EU has fallen further and further behind in relative
terms, from 30 per cent of the world economy in 1980 to 17 per cent
today.
It was supposed to make participating
nations get on better, but the euro and migration crises have stoked
rather than soothed national antagonisms.
The euro and Schengen Agreement (which
abolished the EU’s internal borders) alone should serve to discredit the
European project, yet the authors of those schemes stick mulishly to
them.
The euro must be maintained, regardless of the cost in higher unemployment and lost growth.
Schengen, too, must be upheld, regardless of the impact on security or refugee welfare.
What’s worse, they want to extend the
same flawed logic to other areas, seeing deeper integration as the
solution rather than the problem.
Or, to be more precise, seeing deeper
integration as an objective that justifies any number of problems.
Whatever the question, the answer is always ‘more Europe’. Does that
have to be the answer for Britain, too? Having tried and failed to
convince our friends to go in a different direction, must we submit
ourselves to their project?
Surely we can do better.
We can trade and co-operate with our
allies on the Continent while living under our own laws. We can remain
sympathetically involved with the affairs of our immediate neighbours
while also giving due weight to our older alliances. We can adapt to the
global realities of the digital age.
This referendum is our chance.
We see the direction in which the EU is going, and we know now that no renegotiation can alter it from within.
As Europe shrivels economically, we have
a one-off opportunity to stand amicably aside and negotiate a better
relationship, based on free trade and self-government. Seize that
opportunity and, as well as recovering our democracy, we might jolt the
EU out of its disastrous introversion.
If we cannot lead by persuasion, let us lead by example.
WHY
Vote Leave by Daniel Hannan is published by Head of Zeus at £9.99.
Offer price £7.99 (20 per cent discount) until April 20, 2016. Call 0844
571 0640 or visit mailbookshop.co.uk. P&P free on orders over £12.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3530980/Please-sack-Euro-MP-DANIEL-HANNAN-money-perks-gets-Brussels-making-Britons-lives-harder-begging-nation-courage-job.html#ixzz465l7kRPg
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