UKIP Eastern Counties
UKIP MEP savages Parliamentary Committee for its ‘illegal’ role in negotiating new EU treaty
Wednesday, 1st February 2012
Stuart Agnew MEP
17 January 2012
In a hard hitting speech to the joint meeting of the European Parliament’s Economic and Constitutional Committees late last night (16.1.12), UKIP MEP Stuart Agnew demanded that the rule of law be observed and told Committee members that they are “not above the law.” The joint Committee was discussing the negotiation of the new economic treaty that was proposed at the last EU summit and rejected by Britain.
Mr Agnew openly challenged the designation of three MEPs to take part in the negotiation of the ‘Draft International agreement on a reinforced economic union.’ Mr Agnew said: “At the last meeting of this Committee, it was admitted that the triumvirate (the three MEPs) had no mandate and yet press releases are being issued which describe them as ‘parliamentary representatives’ reinforced by Mr Gualtieri (Roberto Gualtieri, Italian MEP) just now, who has described himself as a ‘negotiator’.”
He went on to question the legal basis for the Parliament to be involved “so intimately with something which is a matter only for the group of countries involved numbering anywhere between 17 and 26.” Mr Agnew said that the matter should have been put to the whole Parliament and, without its full approval, he suggested that the negotiators had “no legal standing at all.”
In his concluding remarks, Mr Agnew bluntly told the joint Committee that: “This is not going to go away. The rule of law must be upheld. If you are not prepared to obey the rule of law, then we will challenge you. You may be high, but you are not above the law, and, if these two Committees should be discussing anything, it should be how to extricate Greece and others from the euro, with dignity.”
To view Mr Agnew’s full speech, go to:
