UKIP Eastern Counties
MEP Condemns Secret Parliamentary Committee Meeting
Wednesday, 14th December 2011
Stuart Agnew MEP
22 November 2011
The European Parliament's Constitutional Affairs Committee held a secret session today (22.11.11) on progress being made towards the EU signing up, in its own right, to the European Convention on Human Rights. Stuart Agnew, the UKIP MEP for the East of England, who attended the meeting said: “I am wholly against the concept of European Parliamentary meetings being held in secret, away from the scrutiny of voters and the media. Given that this concerns the implanting of the European Convention on Human Rights into EU law, a subject which is currently the source of fierce political debate in the United Kingdom, voters will be astonished to learn that they are not permitted to know and understand what is happening.
“That this Committee should feel the need to meet in secret speaks volumes about the lack of openness and, ultimately, of democratic accountability which pervades the whole of the EU. It also heralds the shape of things to come with the EU clearly intent on becoming a country in itself.”
Matters were not improved by the manner in which the secret session was conducted. It started 45 minutes late and, as a result, the interpreters left for their lunch after 15 minutes, leaving the Chairman to announce that he would continue proceedings in French. This made it impossible for non-French speaking MEPs to participate in the session.
