Speeches recovered from the Conservative party’s online archive More…
Blue Card intervention at Convention on the Future of Europe on 5 June 2003
Mr President,
In section A-9 of the draft Constitution, it states that "National Parliaments shall ensure compliance with the subsidiarity principle". This implies a power to do so.
But the Protocol only grants a request. A ...
Speech to the European Convention
The tranche of draft articles on legal powers contains a strange creature called a "non-legislative act" (article 24). This is new; it is not in the existing treaties. The explanatory notes say it comes from existing article 249, but this is misleading.
There are implementing ...
The aim of any constitution is to describe 'who does what' and where power resides. People will look at Part 1 for a clear division of powers between the Union and Member States. They will be disappointed.
If the reader looks at Article 12 he ...
I disagree with M. de Villepin [the French Foreign Minister] and others who have advocated the phrase 'Federation of Nation States' to describe the Union. Its is a contradiction in terms. In a federation, powers are handed over to the federal authority at the centre ...
The Convention has reached a critical stage - can we deliver the Laeken mandate to create a democratic EU 'closer to its citizens'?
There have been many calls for stronger institutions; indeed, many speakers have asked for all EU institutions to be made stronger. But if ...
Our thanks are due to the hard work of the working group chairman, John Bruton, but the report does not do justice to the diversity of views expressed. It uses phrases like, "the Group recommends," when in fact I, and sometimes others, were in disagreement ...
The recommended change of name from 'Complementary Competences' to 'Supporting Measures' is sensible - a small step away from Eurospeak towards the real world.
But I don't think we have achieved a clear and certain allocation of responsibilities between the EU and member states, which ...
There has been an air of unreality about the debate on Economic Governance; perhaps a refusal to look at what is really happening to the EU.
We must be honest with ourselves. Europe has a problem. It is a low growth zone, coupled with high ...
The Laeken Declaration, which set up the Convention on the Future of Europe, identified a bigger role for national parliaments as being crucial if the EU is to close the 'democratic deficit'.
The report of the working group breaks new ground in recommending that national ...
Speech to Conservative Party Conference 2002
This debate is about securing freedom and democracy. This must be our central mission as Conservatives. We don't need to look far to see a lack of democracy: yesterday I got back from my weekly meeting in Brussels. I am the Conservative parliamentary ...
Mr President, the Laeken Declaration highlights the issue of national parliaments because it recognises that the level at which most people feel democratically represented is through their national parliament. This may be an inconvenient fact, it maybe an unpopular fact, but it is a fact ...
The Laeken declaration sets few limits on the scope of our deliberations and we must use that freedom. For the first time in our history the whole scope, purpose and direction of the European Union is subject to debate. We are not the Council of ...
Members of the Convention have frequently complained that the EU structure, operation and language is too complex for the ordinary member of the public to understand.
In our working group we can help remedy this. Our aim must be clarity and certainty. We should also ...
We have heard a lot of speakers with a long shopping list of desirable additional powers for the EU over border controls and police, and action against every sort of crime. Frankly that is the easy part - the difficult part is to ensure proper accountability because these are highly sensitive ...
Mr President, I very much support this important part of our work - engaging with the public and groups outside here - otherwise we are in danger of simply being politicians talking to each other. I am very pleased with these developments, but I wish to support John Tomlinson in his opinion ...
Our prime task is to create a Europe on the firm foundations of democratic involvement and consent. If we don't get this right everything else will fail. To do this we must be honest with ourselves: the present EU is widely regarded as remote ...
Speaking at the launch of the Conservatives' Business Manifesto, the Shadow Trade and Industry Secretary, David Heathcoat-Amory:
"Elections tend to be about plans to spend public money. But elections also need to be about how the country makes money. It is only the taxes paid by businesses and their employees ...
Tax Cuts for Small Business
The number of Civil Servants at the DTI has rocketed since 1997. Bureaucracy is now Britain's fastest growing industry. I will reduce the number of Civil Servants at the DTI and slash red tape, producing savings of £425m. Of that, £200m will go to ...
It is a great privilege to take over the Trade and Industry job from Angela Browning who has done so much to expose the myth that New Labour helps business, or even understands it.
And I'm very lucky to have a team like Alan Duncan, Nick Gibb and Richard ...
