MEP Tells Euroclub Hampshire That European Superstake Is A Myth

7.00.00pm UTC (GMT +0000) Mon 28th Apr 2003

Chris Huhne, the Liberal Democrat MEP for Hampshire, spoke this week about the life of an MEP at a members' meeting of the Euroclub Hampshire held at Jermyn House.

He said that the greatest privilege compared with any other job that he had done in business and journalism was that you had to decide your own priorities as a parliamentarian, and then the electorate would back or sack you.

But Mr Huhne warned that many British people have a curious idea of Brussels and Strasbourg, which was much less daunting than some europhobic newspapers suggested. 'The superstate is a myth' he said.

'The three big EU institutions employ 23,000 people, which is fewer than Hampshire county council and compares with 480,000 in Whitehall' said Mr Huhne.

'Just one penny in the pound of EU economic output is spent by Brussels, whereas all other levels of government including national and local administrations spend 43 pence in the pound.

'And we have been repealing more legislation over the last ten year than we have been putting on the statute book' said Mr Huhne. 'And the laws that get passed are mainly ways of controlling problems like sea and air pollution that can no longer be dealt with by national governments alone'.