Nigel Adams, my local MP, published a statement on his website (HERE) on 6th June 2016 which included this: The EU is fast becoming a European State, where Britain has to obey directives and regulations that British people have never voted for and never would. The House of Commons Library has estimated that over 60% of our laws start in Brussels – nearly all decided by the 28 unelected EU Commissioners.
I have written several letters to him about various Brexit things, usually without a reply, but recently he recruited another assistant who emailed me on 18th April about a letter I sent on 2nd March this year. It wasn't a reply just an apology for not replying and explaining she had just joined Nigel's staff.
Since he now appeared to be responding to letters, I decided to ask Mr Adams about his 2016 "statement" by posing the question I have heard Ken Clarke ask several times. So, on on 1st May I asked his assistant this question:
Could he [Nigel] let me know which significant EU Directive(s) or Regulation(s) did British ministers, acting in the Council of the EU, vote against, according to the Ordinary Legislative Procedure (as laid down in Article 294 TFEU)?
I got a reply this week, two and a half months later, and following a letter of mine published in The Selby Times. This is his reply:
I can confirm that according to official EU voting records, the British government has voted ‘No’ to EU proposals on 56 occasions and abstained a total of 70 times which is also accounted as a form of opposition. As I am sure you know, the Freedom of Information Act permits you to view all such votes online at: http://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/european-council/president/.
Some votes of significance include that of No 768/2005 (2016) establishing a Community Fisheries Control Agency in which the United Kingdom was the only country to abstain. It establishes EFCA, the European Fisheries Control Agency whose main function was to organise the operational coordination of the fisheries control and inspection activities of EU countries and most importantly, help them apply the rules of the common fisheries policy. (CFP). The Common Fishing Policy is one of the main reasons for the drastic decline of our fishing industry, as many foreign vessels were licenced to take our fish as it gives all European fishing fleets equal access to EU waters and fishing ground.
Most recently, the UK also chose to abstain in a vote on the General budget of the European Union for the financial year 2018. The Council's position for 2018 amounts to €158.9 billion in commitments and €144.4 billion in payments, up by 0.6% and 7.4% respectively compared to the 2017 EU budget. As mentioned in my statement which was referenced in your earlier email, this is money that will now be better spent on our own public services, like the NHS and our schools. I predicted that the figure would balloon in years to come, and the numbers above only serve to validate my approximations.
Like Ken Clarke, you don't actually get an answer to your question but an answer to another question. I didn't ask about the number of times we voted against a significant EU Directive but which significant ones. I can easily find the numbers he quotes on the Full Facts website (HERE) which also tells me the total number of votes since 1999 was 2466 up to 24th April 2016. So we voted against 2% of EU laws but I still don't know which significant ones we voted against.
The examples he gives are of 768/2005 (2016) where we abstained not voted against. This seems to be some technical changes to the EU fisheries control arrangements, so hardly significant. And the only other is also an abstention, but from 2018, two years after he made the statement. This is it, out of 60% of the laws that start in Brussels, the most egregious examples of the huge problem of the EU's over mighty and burdensome regulation is two abstentions on minor matters. I don't remember any massive furore about EU Directive 768/1005 do you?
Also, the link he provides by the way gets you to an EU website where you can search for decisions of the EU Council but it doesn't give an easy summary. The Full Facts figures he gave comes from research by UK in a Changing Europe Fellows Sara Hagemann and Simon Hix.
I would have thought someone so exercised about the EU forcing directives and regulations on us would have some key examples ready, but like all the rest of the Brexiteers, he hasn't. I'll try again and let you know what happens.
