Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-09-06-Speech-2-027"
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"en.20050906.6.2-027"2
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"Mr President, I am sorry that the Commissioner himself cannot be with us today, but I understand he has to be in China. I hope the sun is shining upon him there and that he is being instructed to cover up well.
The previous part-session, in July, was the first attended by the UK as Presidency of the Council. We were promised many things: the new Presidency was going to simplify the burdens on business, reduce red tape and provide leadership to make the EU more relevant to the people. The whole House, including this side of the House, should support such an agenda if, indeed, it happens.
This is the first part-session since then, the first chance for all of us to judge the UK Presidency on whether it means what it says. Today the judgement is already becoming clear, because what we have on the agenda is more red tape, not less: we have a directive that calls for businesses to record how much the sun is shining. The UK Presidency is trying to downplay this whole directive, claiming that it is all very straightforward and that the fuss is far-fetched.
If that were true, why have I and my colleagues been getting increasingly frantic messages from organisations and individual companies of all sizes, in such major industries as agriculture, horticulture, construction, tourism and hospitality? They have not taken their information from so-called 'misleading press releases' – despite the predictable spin from Mr Hughes and his Socialist colleagues – but straight from the directive. They are not just imagining problems for the sake of it; they are detailing specific problems in the common position that the Council simply did not foresee when it nodded it through. The Presidency in particular should have very red faces now, though I suspect not from sunburn.
Our role in this House is clearly to help shape EU legislation that is appropriate and proportionate. In its current form, this proposal is neither. If the UK Presidency will not give a lead, our political group will. We have tabled amendments to throw out the common position completely, to remove all references to natural sunlight and to get some sense back into this directive. We are glad to have support from many of the Liberal Democrats, as well as from other political groups. However, this whole House should give out the message loud and clear. People do not want politicians to protect them from sunlight; increasingly, people simply want to be protected from politicians."@en1
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