letter to the editor from Richard Corbett MEP

13 February 2008

Northern Echo

Dear Editor,

Eurosceptics have long followed the policy of Goebbels who said that if you tell a lie often enough people will believe it. John Waiting (Northern Echo, 02/02/2008 ) tries the same tactic when he claimed that Jean Monnet , a founding father of the EU, said: “Europe's nations should be guided towards the superstate without their people understanding what is happening."

I asked the Jean Monnet Foundation whether there is any record of Jean Monnet saying anything of the sort, and they confirm that he didn't - this was an invention first made up in a British newspaper in the 1970s.

On the other hand, they have sent me a real speech by Jean Monnet, in which he said precisely the opposite: "Our Community will only develop well if all the measures that it takes are made public, explained publicly not only to the peoples of our Community but also to those who do not belong to it."

The Lisbon Treaty, currently being debated in detail by the House of Commons, will require the Council of Ministers to meet in public when discussing proposed European legislation, and by requiring all such legislation to be subject to approval by our elected MEPs.

Yours,

Richard Corbett

Labour MEP for Yorkshire & Humber
Blenheim Terrace, Leeds