“Governments
use the European Union to bypass national democracy and pass laws
that national parliaments would not accept, a Home Office minister
has admitted. Karen Bradley told a fringe meeting at Conservative
party conference that other countries sometimes asked British MEPs to
push legislation through the European Parliament so it could not be
blocked by their own national legislatures. She used the example of
mandatory passenger name records on flights, which she said British
MEPs were currently pushing through in Brussels for an unnamed
country.”
“The UK
currently has implemented passenger name records for plane travel but
it is not yet law in many other European countries. Ms Bradley said
the EU could generally be 'used to our advantage' to pass legislation
that the Government wanted. She also hinted that the approach could
be applied to the British parliament, likening difficulties in
passing legislation in foreign parliaments to Liberal Democrat
influence during the 2010 coalition governmanet.”
“Critics
of the European Union, including Ukip leader Nigel Farage, have
described the European Union as undemocratic and said sovereignty
should be restored to national parliaments. European law, as made
collectively by EU states, currently has primacy over domestic
British law. Ukip MEP Gerard Batten said the practice of bypassing
national parliaments described by the minister amounted to ignoring
the public.”
“Labour
leader Jeremy Corbyn has also previously said he thinks the European
Union needs reform to make it more democratic. The Government faces
an in-out referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Union
before 2017, with poll showing an increasingly close result. Ms
Bradley was speaking at a fringe event organised by the Conservative
Europe Group and Conservative European Mainstream organistions - two
pro-EU Tory factions. The Conservative conference is currently
underway in Manchester, where it is running until Wednesday. The
first day of the meeting was dogged by large street protests outside
the conference secure zone.”
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