Jan 15th 2008 - Discrimination in Transport rates and charges

Delivered by Derek Clark on 15 January 2008

Tags: , ,

Debate - Discrimination in Transport rates and charges.

Mr President I congratulate the commission. You don't hear that from up here very often do you? This is a rare example of a report that is on the right road, - to Damascus? We insist on debating this report because it seeks to cut regulation. It admits that small businesses are being weighed down by obsolete legislation, some of it back to 1960. Explanatory memorandum,- "These unnecessary administrative burdens hamper economic activity and have a negative impact on the competitiveness of European enterprises".

I could not agree more, why stop here? Why slash only the paperwork for companies of 10 employees or less? Why not go the whole hog and apply it to the whole of the food transport industry? Go on, make a bonfire of another 100,000 bits of legislation. And scrap the Commission, Parliament and Council.

I'm serious, by cutting these burdens you enable the nations of Europe to throw off the shackles that will otherwise, inevitably, turn us into the also-rans of the twenty first century.

Derek Clark MEP Strasbourg Jan 15th 2008