Corbett sets the record straight on Monnet
A two minute email has helped Labour MEP Richard Corbett expose an argument repeatedly used to attack the European Union by UKIP as a fraud.
The quote, attributed to Jean Monnet, the inspiration behind the EU, appears to back up Eurosceptic claims that the Union was designed to surreptitiously unite the continent into a superstate.
It reads: “Europe's nations should be guided towards the superstate without their people understanding what is happening. This can be accomplished by successive steps, each disguised as having an economic purpose but which will irreversibly lead to federation."
After the quote was repeated by a Eurosceptic columnist in a national newspaper, a suspicious Richard finally set out to discover the truth.
He said: “It only took a quick email to the Jean Monnet Foundation [who archive all of Monnet's work] to discover that the quote is a complete and utter lie. Within a day they had responded confirming there was no record of Monnet ever saying anything of the sort and that it was fabricated, most probably by a newspaper in the 1970s. They also sent me a quote in which Monnet says the complete opposite!”
Despite this, the quote is frequently mentioned on UKIP and Eurosceptic websites with UKIP's South West MEP Graham Booth repeatedly using it as “evidence” in his speeches.
Richard continued: “It doesn't surprise me that UKIP keep using this quote as it supports their attempts to mislead people about the EU. The repeated use of it suggests they either have no problems using lies to promote their cause or are so incompetent they are incapable of doing research a school child would be expected to do.”
Due to the prevalance of the quote across the internet Richard is far from optimistic it will fade into obscurity but does hope he will at least force UKIP to act.
He added: “I have written to Nigel Farage to inform him of the situation and hopefully he will pass on the truth to UKIP's membership and help some of his MEPs, not least Graham Booth, to draft a new speech. I'm not holding my breath though!”
- Jimmy Young used the fabricated Monnet quote in his Sunday Express column on 28th January 2007.
- In a speech to the Council of Europe on 28th March 1953, Jean Monnet said: "Notre Communauté ne se développera bien que si toutes les mesures qu'elle prend sont rendues publiques, expliquées publiquement, non suelement aux peuples de notre Communauté, mais aux peoples qui n'en font pas partie." It translates to: " 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 "
- Graham Booth used the fabricated quote in speeches 24th March 2005 ( http://www.grahamboothmep.co.uk/search.php?misc=search&subaction=showfull&id=1112088261&archive=&cnshow=news&start_from=&%5C%22to_date_day%5C%22=&TB=home5 ) and 3rd February 2006 ( http://www.ukipwestdorset.org.uk/articles/truro-speech-by-our-mep-graham-booth ).
- The fabricated quote has previously appeared on Jeffrey Titford's website ( http://216.239.59.104/search?q=cache:Y8agtCWMcx8J:www.jeffreytitfordmep.co.uk/newsletter.php%3Fsubaction%3Dshowfull%26id%3D1126537273%26archive%3D%26start_from%3D%26ucat%3D5%26TB%3Dhome8+jeffrey+titford+mep+monnet+federation&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=uk )
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