letter to the editor from Richard Corbett MEP

28 June 2005

no related press release

Yorkshire Post

Sir,

So Bill Carmichael thinks we should opt out of sending MEPs to the European Parliament (17 June)!

Yet the Parliament is the one directly-elected body among the European institutions. It has acquired the power to scrutinise, amend, approve or reject European Commission proposals for legislation. It regularly re-shapes what is put forward - it is no rubber-stamp parliament.

It would be odd in the extreme for Britain to opt out of this influential and democratic institution!

Richard Corbett
Labour MEP for Yorkshire and the Humber