Published on 12 Dec 2012
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• European Parliament, Strasbourg, 12 December 2012
• Speaker: Nigel Farage MEP, Leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP), Co-President of the 'Europe of Freedom and Democracy' (EFD) Group in the European Parliament - http://nigelfaragemep.co.uk
- 'Blue-card' question: Charles GOERENS MEP (Luxembourg)
Liberal group (ALDE)
• Debate: Preparations for the European Council meeting (13-14 December 2012)
Council and Commission statements
[2012/2725(RSP)]
Transcript:
There is a certain sense of irony here this morning because of course this is the week when you were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize - this great achievement. I thought the award bizarre, particularly as this morning, what we are discussing are a new range of measures that will further pile on the agony for those southern Eurozone states.
Europe is now split from North to South with increasing violence and enmity between the peoples of the North of Europe and the South of Europe. So I don't think the peace prize was really very appropriate. Not of course, that it will pose you a problem tomorrow because there are no leaders in those southern European countries who frankly have got the courage to stand up to the might of Brussels and to challenge the Eurozone project.
But what you will have at tomorrow's summit yet again, is the curious case of Mr Cameron.
Because on the one hand, he is a big ally. He resists having a referendum. He publicly states again and again that he wants Britain to remain a member of the European Union. And surprisingly he has supported every one of your moves towards a fiscal union and a banking union.
And Mr Verhofstadt, indeed, called Cameron 'the greatest federalist outside the Eurozone.'
And yet on the other hand, he cannot go along with any of this because politically the Financial Transaction Tax, the Banking Union, are quite impossible in Britain.
But every time there is a summit and the Eurozone moves that little bit further forward it leaves Britain and it leaves Cameron even more marginalised. In fact it is barely worth him turning up tomorrow.
The great debate in Britain has always been that the Single Market has been the victory of our membership of the Union, and that we have great influence over that single market. Well, increasingly we are going to be excluded from the key decisions that affect that single market. And given the hostility, and I am sorry to disappoint my Conservative friends here, but there is hostility now towards Britain in this place. They blame their economic problems on our City of London.
Frankly, the argument that the single market benefits Britain and that we have any influence over it is now disappearing. And very shortly, I think, you'll be glad to see the back of us.
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• Video: EbS (European Parliament)
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• EU Member States:
Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Germany, Denmark, Estonia, Spain, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, United Kingdom
