Tuesday, 31st March 2009Thérèse Coffey (Candidate in the European Elections) spoke to a packed house at the Princess Cottage in Bagshot on Sunday night.
Thérèse is a trained accountant, so explained that if elected she will make EU finances an absolute priority - the shocking fact is that the EU's accounts haven't been signed off for the last 14 years due to 'financial irregularities'.
She also talked about CAP (common agricultural policy) reform - something that Tony Blair said had been agreed when he gave up the UK rebate (partial refund of contributions) but was never delivered.
Interestingly, Thérèse explained that one strange element of the way in which the EU operates is that MEPs can change their votes after a vote has been taken. She gave an example of an incident when UKIP MEPs voted to end the UK's opt-out from the Working Time Directive and then later (under pressure from their supporters I guess) changed their vote.
A very interesting evening and a fascinating insight into some of the main European issues. Thérèse made it clear that she sees a major priority for Conservative politicians (and their political grouping) will be to remove powers from Europe and return them to Westminster and to local government - something I support - getting the power as close as possible to the people.
No comments:
Post a Comment