22 Written explanations of Steven WOOLFE

The affairs of Montenegro can be managed by the Government of Montenegro and the UN. There is no requirement for the EU to be involved in this country. I will not vote to extend the mandate of the EU into competencies which they have no requirement to be involved.

Conflation of legislation in the EU Parliament seems to be the norm, but on this occasion it goes beyond even EU general practices. The EU—Brazil Agreement can adequately be handled via WTO rules, of which the EU is a signatory, and the modification of concessions in the schedule for Croatia could equally be handled via WTO rules. Surely both these countries deserve to be treated separately.

Conflation with the gathering of data relating to Danish vehicle registration and terrorism to be directed toward a central database will do nothing to address terrorism. This enterprise, if it is to be executed at all, could be managed by Interpol. There is no requirement for the EU to be involved or to extend its competency into areas that are best left to national governments.

The harvesting of DNA data from innocent citizens who have no criminal record is a gross infringement of civil liberties. Far from protecting citizens in Europe, the proposed legislation will put DNA data in the hands of unelected bodies who can neither be trusted with that data nor should be in possession of it in the first place. National governments should be responsible for the gathering of data on their citizens and in cooperation with Interpol. The EU Commission has no business legislating in this area.

Brexit will enable the Department for Environment and Rural affairs to once again determine the rules relating to animal health, plant health and plant protection products. Recent EU rules on heritage seeds is a disaster where UK residents are no longer able to buy or sell heritage. The EU could do well to steer clear of this type of legislation.

MHz frequency bands will be subject to commercial tender post-Brexit. The free markets will decide which companies have access to these MHz bands. There is no requirement to have a uniform MHz band throughout the EU and the legislation even appears to contradict the EU’s own ‘competition law’. The free markets will decide on rural broadband access in UK

20 million working age people are unemployed in the EU according to 2017 stats. 50% of young Greeks are unemployed. The euro has been a disaster for Europe and suppressed business activity. Taxpayers’ funds are at the heart of the EU budget. If the EU disbanded taxes would be lowered and people throughout Europe would have more money in their pockets to spend. Every time there is a budget increase there also appears to be an increase in deprivation and social exclusion throughout Europe. When will the EU Commission ever get the message?

. ‒ Brexit will enable Britain once again to take control of the care and breeding of livestock, including in the equine market. The equine trade is an international one. Also, there is mention of the EU agricultural policy in the document, which I do not support.

Britain will soon recover the 200 mile fishing exclusion zone due to BREXIT. Westminster will be able once again to legislate on matters such as the presence of mercury in fish. Whilst it is recognised mercury is a dangerous substance it should be a matter for national parliaments to legislate on.

. ‒ EU corporate governance and long-term shareholder engagement are the antithesis of everything I stand for. This type of legislation is the reason why Britain voted for Brexit. The EU should not be meddling in governance matters: they should be left to national governments and the free market to determine.

EU legislation into Waste management has proved disastrous. Abandoned cars in the UK has increased dramatically since the EU had a hand in this affair. Far from improving the situation it has been exacerbated by EU meddling. The answer the end of life vehicles is to create depots where the vehicles can be deposited for free and then the vehicles and batteries can be recycled.

EU legislation on waste has been a disaster for the European environment. The UK has suffered an epidemic of fly tipping. Clean-up costs in Britain have now topped GBP 50. EU waste management legislation certainly is not the answer. The EU needs to wake up to an environmental disaster of its own making and needs to urgently look at carbon capture as a pragmatic solution to dealing with waste.

. ‒ EU directives on landfill waste provoke an epidemic of fly-tipping on an industrial scale. The legislation clearly is not working. In fact, EU legislation on river dredging led to the floods in Britain in the last few years that created 30 000 tons of landfill waste! What an irony.The EU is not up to the job, and sensible pragmatic solutions need to be found to deal with landfill waste.

. ‒ EU legislation on packaging waste has proved a disaster once again, with a subsequent epidemic of fly-tipping in Britain scarring our countryside.The EU has never adopted a mature approach to packaging waste. There needs to be dialogue between manufacturers, retail outlets and consumers to decide on the level of packaging, the material used and whether it can be bio-degradable etcetera. This has never happened under the EU, which adopted a high-handed attitude without listening to consumers or voters. They paid the price and Brexit was the result.

. ‒ Equality between women and men cannot be achieved through legislation. Much as I am in favour of such a noble concept, we first need to tackle soft issues like cronyism and old boys’ networks in order to make any real progress. These soft issues are amply demonstrated in the European Parliament and I suggest it should start to put its own house in order first!

. ‒ The EU should not be dispersing taxpayer funds across Europe. This legislation should be dealt with by national governments. Each EU country is at a different stage of development and that should be respected. This legislation is a classic reason not to allow the Commission to over-reach itself, and I will not support a piece of legislation that enables the EU to extend its influence into every aspect of our lives.

. ‒ As a free-marketeer I do not believe the EU should be meddling in the legislation of data. In fact, it appears this is solely an exercise to invade the privacy of individuals. I cannot support a piece of legislation that gives the Commission yet more powers to snoop into people’s lives.

. ‒ Some issues are bigger than profit. There is a need to legislate on the welfare and protection of farm animals. The costs can be passed on to the consumer.There is no need to have intensive farming of breeding stock in 2017. I am in favour of this legislation. Much as I do not support the increased power of the EU, this issue is above political considerations.

This report seriously begs the question: where does interference from the EU end? It seems to me that the EU is casting its net far wider than it should be – quite literally.This agreement could have serious implications on the local fishing trade in the Pacific, which will inevitably harm the local economy as well as having an environmental impact on the sustainability of the tuna fish.The EU’s common fisheries policy has had serious implications for the fishing industry in the UK, in which many fishermen in my constituency have lost their jobs in the process – this will have the same impact on local fishing trade in the Cook Islands.This epitomises the EU bullying attitude - with no regard or thought whatsoever for our own people and the people of the Cook Islands.

Interpol has always worked – There is no need for an ineffective process that will cause more issues and harm than good. Dealing with extradition cases costs the British state at least GBP 27 million a year, and the crimes they deal with are often trivial.There is a second problem with the warrant. Requests from other EU countries to extradite their own citizens living in Britain have risen fourfold over the past three years, clogging up our courts and costing British taxpayers millions. Last year, 1 355 people were sent for trial in other EU countries by British courts under the warrant. Citizens can be deported without any prima facia evidence, with no right to see a legal counsel.

I’m proud to say that my country, the UK, has already made this so called ‘designer drug’ illegal. Does the EU need to involve itself in this ban – the UK, and other countries which have made this substance illegal, have done so without any EU assistance. This is a matter for the Member States.The EU is playing catch-up on this and the EU, in the form of a supranational body, is ineffective in protecting national citizens.

This impacts low—skilled workers from textiles to manual labour – unchecked immigration has caused wage compression, which makes native workers suffer. National governments are the ones who should be in control, as they are the ones who care about their workers.Only applicable is an application made by a Member State – this is a national issue, not an EU matter. It was the EU that caused this in the first place. The dislocation of the euro and the amassed debt that the EU has propagated has only made things worse.The EU will only accept if the Member State is having an economic crisis of massive structural downturn – true economic globalisation funding means that for a high-wage, developed economy like Britain’s the EU should focus efforts on the highly skilled, added-value sectors such as advanced manufacturing, creative industries, engineering and even financial services.The EU should be concentrated on adapting to globalisation and global competitiveness, not building more powerful centralised funding facades in Brussels.