Rebutting 9 EU Myths

By Richard Corbett MEP

1. “Why can’t we have our own MEP?”
You do – you have six of them. We elect MEPs by region – Yorkshire and the Humber has six – shared out among the parties in proportion to the number of votes each party gets.

All European countries agreed to use proportional representation for European parliamentary elections to ensure that the European Parliament reflects the full diversity of public opinion.

2. “We can’t vote for candidates, only for parties”
Each party chooses a team of six candidates for European elections, just as they choose a team of individual candidates for House of Commons elections. In both cases voters place a cross by their preferred team.

The only difference is when it comes to the count: only some members of each party’s team will obtain seats, in accordance with their share of the vote. Parties are obliged to rank their team to show who will get the seat if they only get enough votes for one seat, who will be elected if they win two seats etc.

3. “MEPs are overpaid and on the gravy train”
British MEPs get paid exactly the same salary as a backbench member of the House of Commons, not a penny more and not a penny less. They can ask Parliament to pay for assistants to help in their offices to pay for rent, telephones, stationary etc for their constituency offices – just like MPs and with a similar system. However, all Labour MEPs have their accounts independently audited every year by external accountants to guarantee that they have not misused taxpayers’ money. Other parties haven’t until recently – hence the scandals in the Conservative and UKIP ranks (with the Tory leader and Chief Whip in the EP having to resign).

3a. “MEPs have just voted themselves a pay rise”
British MEPs voted for a pay-cut when Parliament approved a common rate for all nationalities to come into effect in the next Parliament. Since then, the devaluation of the pound against the soaring Euro has meant that this common rate, although unchanged in Euros, is worth more (for the time being) in Pounds.

4. “The European Parliament has no powers”
Under the EU’s ‘co-decision’ procedure, no European laws can be adopted without the approval of the European Parliament. Laws are therefore in the hands of elected representatives, be it national laws (House of Commons) or European laws (European Parliament). As an extra safeguard, the national governments meet in the Council of Ministers, which also has to approve EU laws.

MEPs can also sack the European Commission and approve or reject the EU budget.

5. “We have massive immigration because of the EU”
Only fellow EU citizens – not the rest of the world – have a right to live and work in other EU countries. More British citizens live in other EU countries than EU citizens live in Britain.

Many Eastern Europeans came to Britain after their countries joined the EU four years ago. Many are now returning (currently more are leaving than coming).

The Poles and others who worked in Britain have, in total, paid more into Britain’s exchequer than they have received in benefits. We gained a workforce that has been educated and trained at the expense of someone else’s taxpayers and we used them often to do jobs where no British workers were available.

6. “The EU is corrupt and can’t even sign off its own accounts”
The Department of Work and Pensions has a bigger budget than the EU and their accounts have not been signed off for over a decade. Similar for the US government budget. All large government organisations have problems – but the EU is better than most. Recent problems have been about incomplete paperwork rather than fraud. We will fight to improve it further.

The only cases of fraud found in the EU in the past few years have been that of Conservative and UKIP MEPs.

7. “The Irish referendum shows that the EU never takes ‘No’ for an answer”
The basic rule book of the EU – the treaties – was approved by every country and any change to them needs the agreement of every country.

The reform of the treaties contained in the Lisbon Treaty has been approved by almost every country in the European Union. Just one – Ireland – has said ‘No’. This would have killed off the Lisbon Treaty if Ireland itself, on a recommendation of its own Parliament, had not offered to reconsider – providing certain conditions are met to respond to the concerns of Irish public opinion.

That is the only way that the EU can work, by bridging the gap when there is a difference of view among its member countries. The other countries are not ignoring Irelands’ ‘No’ – they are responding to it.

8. “We were promised a referendum”
Britain is a parliamentary democracy and has never in its history ratified an international treaty by means of a referendum. Instead there is detailed, line-by-line scrutiny by our elected national Parliament.

A referendum had been proposed on a previous – now abandoned – idea, namely to sweep away all the existing treaties that we have ratified and replace them with a new EU founded on a Constitution. Many thought that a Constitution was a new legal base and should be approved by a referendum, but once that idea was dropped and we returned instead to the existing treaties, the case for a referendum disappeared – not just in Britain but in other countries too (only Ireland, which has to for any change to the treaties, held a referendum).

9. “We don’t need Europe”
Britain is a trading nation. 60% of our trade is with the rest of the EU. We need to be a member not just to have access to that market but to have a voice at the table to defend our corner when the common rules to that common market are being shaped.