Blair Sells-out on Free Market Europe
Brussels, 22 June 2007 -- Speaking on the Today programme this morning, Timothy Kirkhope MEP, Conservative Leader in the European Parliament, warned Tony Blair that failure to stop protectionist leaders abandoning competition policy - one of the Union’s founding objectives – would be a sell-out of a key British interest.
The original constitution aimed for a free market EU with “an internal market where competition is free and undistorted”. The new draft treaty makes no reference to this aim but keeps “full employment and social progress” as top EU objectives, giving cover to any country wanting to support failing companies or create “national champions”.
Mr. Kirkhope said:
"Giving up on a core principle of the EU is a sign that Labour's red lines are nothing more than a sham, distracting the British people from the truth: it looks like Blair is selling out in Brussels today.
"A protectionist Europe is the opposite of what we have been working for and what the British people want or need. It pushes Europe in the wrong direction at the wrong time - 18 million are still on the dole and Europe is slipping down the competitiveness league tables.
"This Government seems to be guided solely by a need to try to stave off a referendum, rather than vigorously pursuing the British national interest and the right course for Europe."
ENDS
