The EU is an undemocratic organisation with its own interests at heart; a racket to enrich its ruling elite. Unlike ordinary treaty organisations, its governing body, the European Commission, is designed to promote what is best for the European Union, not its member states or their citizens.

The European Parliament cannot propose legislation. Instead, it is the unelected European Commission, composed of fraudsters and other convicted criminals, which has legislative initiative. While the Commission can be asked to put forward legislation by Members of the European Parliament, it does not have to. There is a chilling effect here, because anti-EU MEPs will not bother asking for legislation they know will not be put forward.

About a quarter of EU laws do not fall under the “codecision procedure”. If they fall under the “assent procedure”, the European Parliament has power to veto but not amend proposals. Under “consultation procedure” the European Parliament cannot stop the legislation.

Almost 80% of UK law now comes from the EU, not from our elected and representative representatives in Westminster. MPs don’t want to admit how little power they have: during the recent media circus about post office closures, no major politicians would admit they could do nothing about it without leaving the EU: it was an EU initiative. (I do actually support privatising the post.) Small UK businesses are suffocating under pointless EU directives we can do nothing about, except leave the EU.

The Conservative Party say they want to be “in the EU, not ruled by the EU”. They say that since we will be so affected by the EU whether we are members or not, we might as well be members so that we have some say in its running.

This is not true. 10% of Britain’s trade is with people in EU countries, 10% with non-EU countries. 80% is internal. The cost of unnecessary regulation to businesses is enormous, and we do not need to be a member of the EU to trade with it. Indeed, the EU is an anti-free-trade organisation which therefore hurts the developing world: membership requires we put a 1.5% tariff on all non-EU trade, as well as further ad-hoc protectionist measures. If we really want free trade, we’ll unilaterally declare it. If other countries don’t, it’s their loss. It doesn’t even require any government agreement, let alone the EU.

The Conservative manifesto for MEP elections said that they wanted to

• “fight fraud and maladministration in Europe”
• “oppose Euro-Socialist efforts to impose new burdens on business, new Euro-taxes, new trade union privileges and new red tape”
• “complete the single market, to secure greater competition and wider consumer choice at lower prices”
• “defend Britain’s farmers and fishermen to ensure they get the best possible deal in Europe”

It is now clear that after 30 years in the EU, membership has given us no control over the direction the EU has taken. Fraud continues on an (almost) unimaginable scale, and the European Court of Auditors refused to sign off the EU accounts for the 13th year running (certain to become 14th year running in November). It is official practice now not to even bother investigating fraud under €1 million. We wouldn’t get any of the EU’s regulations if we weren’t members. Unilateral free trade will bring us greater competition and efficiency than anything else. The CAP and CFP will never be reformed, and even slight reform would be unacceptable: the only acceptable reform is their abolition, which we can effect for ourselves by leaving the EU.

A good example of the unreformability of the EU is the two parliament buildings in Strasbourg and Brussels. Moving various files and equipment back and forth between the two cities takes 10 large trucks, and the cost of having two locations is estimated at €200 million a year. A force of 30 men loads the trucks for the 250m journey between the two locations. Everyone agrees that having two buildings is pointless, except the French who don’t want to lose the parliament in Strasbourg. This grotesque waste and inefficiency cannot be reformed except by treaty, which will be vetoed by the French.

No one seriously believes the EU can be reformed, or that we have any control over it. We should leave immediately and stop contributing to its budget. Leaving will have no detrimental effects to us. The EU is the successor to the USSR: it is a socialist organisation designed to abolish the competition between nations which hinders government control of the economy (for example, tax competition).

Finally, take a look at some of the videos here: http://www.youtube.com/user/europarl.

We want to trade with Europe, we want to cooperate with Europe, we want to be good neighbours with Europe, but we do not want to be governed by the dictatorship that is the European Union.