letter to the editor from Richard Corbett MEP

15 January 2005

Various local newspapers

Sir,

Tory MEP Roger Helmer manages to suggest (a) that the European Union wants to sink Britain into a terrifying new superstate, (b) that anyone who supports the new EU constitution is somehow a traitor, and (c) that my support is based on nothing more than greed (letter, 15 January).

I take exception to this. I have been asked to represent MEPs in discussions about the constitution with national parliaments, and the European Parliament will cover my travel expenses for this purpose. It takes an impressive feat of verbal manipulation to make that sound like a subsidy for promoting my own views!

As for the constitution itself, it puzzles me why even eurosceptics should object to a document which does nothing more than clarify what decisions we do and don't take at EU level, streamline decision-making, and add extra democratic safeguards.

When you remember that conservatives, socialists, liberals and greens from across Europe support this – except for our own blinkered Tories – Mr Helmer's isolated position starts to look distinctly odd.

Richard Corbett

Co-rapporteur on the EU constitution