May 4th 2009 - Organisation of Working Time

Delivered by Derek Clark on 4 May 2009

Tags: Organisation of Working Time, Strasbourg,

Debate - Organisation of Working Time. On Feb 18th President Klaus remarked, "the EU structure is a dogma which contradicts the experience of heritage" Well, member states have a heritage, they do things their own way, including the way people work.

When I pointed this out in the first conciliation meeting and remarked that member states should not be forced into a straight jacket, a colleague MEP actually queried as to whether I should have been invited to the meeting. There's democracy for you. But the Commissioner's document produced later that night," ... preferences and needs of workers make it impossible to fix a date to end opt outs".

Nice to hear an echo. As President Klaus said, " there is a great distance between the citizen and the elected EU representatives, but much less distance within member states, which makes the EU undemocratic". Agreed and I, for one, insist on being more representative of the citizens of the EU. After all, where there were but 4 member states wanting opt outs in 2004 there are now 15, does that not tell you anything? And MEPs had the nerve to call 15 member states out of 27 a blocking minority!! Parliament is in denial.

Derek Clark MEP Strasbourg May 4th 2009