LABOUR’S leader in Europe is to quit blaming the “colossal waste of time and money” spent on holding a full parliament in Strasbourg, France, once a month as one reason for going.
Gary Titley, who has represented a Greater Manchester constituency, and now the North West, as an MEP for 20 years will stand down at the next European elections in 2009.
In a letter to the Regional Director of the North West Labour Party, Mr Titley explained the reasons why he had decided to go.
“The constant travelling inevitably takes its toll, particularly because of all the extra commitments that come from being Labour Leader in Europe,” he said. “Furthermore, I can no longer tolerate shifting the Parliament lock, stock and barrel to Strasbourg one week a month. This is not only a colossal waste of time and money, but also seriously undermines the standing and effectiveness of the Parliament.”
The European Parliament’s home is Strasbourg but committee meetings where most of the detailed work is done are held in Brussels, Belgium.
Under the Maastricht Treaty signed in 1992 when John Major was British Prime Minister it was agreed that premier meetings of the parliament would be in Strasbourg.
That cannot be changed unless all 27 member countries agree. There have been several failed attempts to centre the parliament just on Brussels with suggestions that the buildings at Strasbourg could be used for a European University or European summit meetings.
Mr Titley said: “I have hit out many times about this. It costs an estimated £200m a year for MEPs to travel to Strasbourg 12 times a year. It is also believed to result in 20,000 tons of CO2 emissions.”
“After 20 years of living out of a suitcase and standing for security checks at airports I want a life. It is down to sheer exhaustion and a desire to spend more time with my wife.”
Fellow North West MEP, Conservative Sir Robert Atkins, backed Mr Titley’s attack on Strasbourg.
“This is something on which there is no division among British MEPs. It is utterly ridiculous that we have to trek there. It is an outrageous waste,” he said.
Arlene McCarthy, Labour North West MEP, said of Strasbourg: “There is a symbolic value of Strasbourg, with it once being in Germany and now France – but we have moved on since then. But the French make a lot of money out it. “It is a nightmare place to get to and is a terrible waste of money.”
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Dave Pickup (03/12/2007 at 20:04)
EricH, Horwich (03/12/2007 at 23:10)
I imagine he'll be refusing the pension as he's so upset.
Amounderness Lad, Caithness (04/12/2007 at 01:23)
Expecting the French to give up a chance to brush their own egos by pretending they control Europe is as silly as expecting them to accept English as the International Business Language.
It's all about French Pride and the money is of little consequence but thank heavens somebody is willing to refuse to accept the stupidity of it.
reppick, salford (04/12/2007 at 03:34)
gladys rowbotham, Manchester (04/12/2007 at 07:22)
gladys rowbotham, Manchester (04/12/2007 at 07:23)
markyboy (04/12/2007 at 08:23)
the nasty whiff from labour is getting worse every day.
Tubby Scruff (04/12/2007 at 08:23)
Timberman, MANCHESTER (04/12/2007 at 10:03)
As for the last paragraph we don't want to upset the French do we, what a load of
rubbish. TTFN
David, Manchester (04/12/2007 at 18:33)
The Evangelist- Rochdale, Rochdale UK (04/12/2007 at 18:38)
Chris83 (04/12/2007 at 23:20)
A couple of the comments on this story are just factually wrong, though: MEPs pay income tax just like anyone else and staff at the Parliaments must pay the relevant taxes for that country - anyone working in Belgium pays considerably more tax than someone working in Manchester on the same salary. These are the kinds of unsubstantiated lies about politicians that arouse cycicism but help no one. Criticise them (and vote them out!) when they're wrong or corrupt, sure, but don't just make it up!
Talk of politicians claiming huge allowances is nearly always wide of the mark - remember that most MPs and MEPs expenses includes the salary of two or three staff. How else could they keep in touch, reply to correpsondence with thousands (or for MEPs, millions) of constituents?
Finally, someone said that Mr Titley should try working a 50 hour week. Here's a challenge for you. Write to him and ask what kind of hours he keeps in a typical week. Get informed before you slag the guy off. I'd be amazed if he's had a working week of less than 50 hours in many years now.
gladys rowbotham, Manchester (05/12/2007 at 07:29)
Did he agree with Nikiforos Diamandouros when he said members of the public should have access to members’ general expenditure, travel and subsistence allowances as well as allowances for MEPs' assistants?
gladys rowbotham, Manchester (05/12/2007 at 07:34)
Hmm....
markyboy (05/12/2007 at 13:46)
i am the person who asked about the 50 hour week.
sounds like you are a member of his fan club.
let me tell you i work 40-45 hrs per week and travel anything up to 10 hours, then have to do my own accounts - i dont have a team of paid helpers to do the mundane things for me.
it is well known that because meps know their travel dates they book plane/train tickets well in advance at a cheap rate but then submit expense forms for the full cost and trouser the difference.
also the eu budget accounts have NOT been signed off and agreed for 13 years because of the scale of alleged corruption/cockups.
ace, manchester (05/12/2007 at 19:51)
Chris83 (05/12/2007 at 22:58)
I don't mean to compare anyone's work to your own, of course. For starters I don't know you and secondly I would be the first person to say that MPs and MEPs are well paid! I'm just trying to put some facts on here as I see them. I think he works hard. I don't like what seems to be uninformed criticism. I'm sorry if you don't like that.
As regards MEP's claiming more money than they are entitled to, I don't believe it's true. After all this - www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article530794.ece - was years ago. If you know different, and can prove that any MEP has broken the law in this way, I hope you report it to the authorities ec.europa.eu/anti_fraud/index_en.html) and go to the press. I've no time for crooks, and I'd readily admit I'd be shocked if Gary Titley was involved in this kind of practice.
The EU accounts thing is a funny one. The US federal government suffers from the same kind of accounting difficulties and - I understand - also hasn't had its accounts signed off in years. Which is obviously not something to be proud of either. It's just not very often I hear someone follow this argument through to its logical conclusion which is that we should essentially shut down as much government as possible because it becomes very difficult to account for every last pound of huge budgets (this is, at least, where the American Libertarians are intellectually honest). It doesn't necessarily follow there's large-scale corruption, so much as failures of accounting somewhere down the line. If you read the Court of Auditors reports, you'll see that there is progress being made in the EU eca.europa.eu), but there's still plenty to do.
Anyway, like I say, I didn't intend my comments to be read as personal criticism - I apologise if you felt they were. I hope we can keep this kind of exchange objective.