We must protect our industry from piratical and slave labour economies
NOVEMBER 2010: This was a contribution that I made yesterday under the Catch the Eye procedure to a debate in the European Parliament on the Commission Work Programme for 2011.
I told the Chamber:
"Reading the Commission Work Programme document, one principal point stands out: use of the crisis to grab power or the Commission. Objectives include:
1. co-ordination of economic and fiscal policies;
2. broader and enhanced surveillance of fiscal policies;
3. better co-ordination of macro-economic policy; and (more chillingly)
4. new enforcement mechanisms.
We have heard that these will produce, smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. However, the Commission's Europe 2020 document* was disrarmingly frank:
1. twenty-tree million unemployed;
2. a 4% fall in GDP in 2009; and
3. production back to 1990s levels.
As long as we embrace Globalism, we shall not dig ourselves out of the crisis. The Europe 2020 document refers to member states being the most innovative in the world. However, if emerging, low wage economies are able to steal inventions and innovations with impunity, innovation will not help us..
The 2020 document refers to the peoples of Europe as talented and creative. Perhaps we should follow demographic policies that foster those talents and protect and preserve that creativity.
* the Commission Work Programme is the implementation of the first part of the Commission's 2020 document.
