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EU is killing car industry

Tuesday, 9th March 2010

UKIP MEP Mike Nattrass has welcomed a report which claims the EU is killing Europe’s automotive industry.

In a report which was published yesterday (March 8) on The Wall Street Journal website, Neil Winton, who writes the European Perspective column for Detroit News Online’s Automotive Insider, claimed the EU is imposing an ‘eye-watering array of fuel efficiency hurdles for car makers to clear in the next 10 years’.

As a result of these hurdles the columnist says European car makers will have to raise, in stages, the fuel economy of the vehicles they manufacture to the equivalent of 43 miles per US gallon by 2015 and to around 60mpg by 2020.

This, according to the Deutsche Bank, could see the cost of cars manufactured in Europe soar by between 500 euros and 1,000 euros as a result of the 2015 fuel economy standards.

Mr Nattrass says the British automotive industry has suffered as a result of costly EU interference.

“In 2005 Peugeot closed its Ryton plant in the UK to move to a purpose-built facility in Slovakia – this was financed by EU grants,” said Mr Nattrass, who is a member of the EU’s Transport & Tourism Committee and is UKIP’s Transport spokesman.

“Looking at even more recent history, last November I warned of how EU governments have a financial stake in exporting the jobs of British General Motors’ workers to Eastern Europe and how the EU provided €70m in loans for the construction of a greenfield plant near St Petersburg in Russia.

“Effectively what we are talking about here is British taxpayers actually subsidising the export of their own jobs.

“Now, new fuel regulations will force the British car industry to increase the price of vehicles on the forecourts at a time when our economy is already struggling.

“EU meddling equals loss of jobs and rising costs to businesses and consumers in Britain. What a great way to stifle the economy.

“We are bombarded by a deluge of expensive EU directives and laws and the LibLabCon just stands by and allows this political takeover to continue at an alarming pace.

“UKIP is the only party committed to standing up for Britain and its interests. It is time for Britain to pull out of the EU,” he added.