The Voice of Spalding and South Holland
I would like to take issue with Mr Jackson, the Vote Leave co-ordinator on his assertion that the European Commission makes the laws of the country.
It is clear that he has not taken the opportunity to examine how the European Union works.
The Referendum on the UK’s membership is the most important collective decision that this country has had to make for 40 years.
In order for that decision to be made fairly, the Leave Campaign do themselves no favours by citing myths.
I would therefore like to address a couple of myths in Mr Jackson’s letter.
The European Commission’s main roles are to:
Propose legislation
Enforce European Law
Set objectives and priorities for action
Manage EU policies and budgetary arrangements
Represent the European Union on the global stage.
The European Commission is in effect the Civil Service of the European Union. Do we elect our civil servants? Do we elect our ambassadors?
The European Commission puts forward draft legislative policy proposals after consultation with national heads of government and independent experts.
These are then considered by both the European Parliament consisting of elected MEP’s and the Council of Ministers consisting of the appropriate elected minister representing each of the national governments.
These two separate bodies then review, debate and amend the proposals that can often result in three different versions of the same proposal.
Further negotiations take place to ultimately arrive at an agreed set of proposals for National Parliaments to consider.
In the UK, non-controversial proposals are brought into effect by Parliamentary Statutory Instrument.
Where appropriate, they are debated in Parliament where MPs have the opportunity to scrutinise the proposals and strengthen them if deemed necessary, before passing them into British Law.
The democratically elected European Parliament is also able to put forward proposals for negotiation with the Council of Ministers with a view to implementing them in European Law and together with Council of Ministers sets the direction in the European Union and directly represents the interests of the citizens of Europe to make sure other EU institutions are working democratically.
I would also like to address Mr Jackson’s assertion that the EU Accounts have not been signed off.
They have and they can be found on the European Court of Auditors website.
The European Court of Auditors follows the ethics laid down by the International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions, the same body that lays down the ethics of the National Audit Office.
The European Court of Auditors has identified fraud risk within the EU. This is somewhat different from the national Audit Office who have recently stated that the exact level of fraud risk within the UK Government is unknown.
Whilst I appreciate that there is a genuine reason to debate whether or not the UK should be a member of the European Union, I personally feel that the negotiations I have described should be publicly transparent.
I would urge Leave campaigners to state facts not myths.
John Bland
Park Avenue
Spalding
