12 Written explanations of Henrik OVERGAARD NIELSEN

The Brexit Party voted against this non-legislative resolution. Principally, The Brexit Party oppose the EU’s infringement proceedings against any sovereign nation. We believe that the governments of these nations, who were democratically elected unlike many EU lawmakers, have the right to enact the policies that they have elected on. For these reasons, we voted against calls for further hearings with Poland and Hungary.

The Brexit Party have voted to abstain on this legislative report. Whilst we support the principle of cooperation with neighboring countries, particularly when this concerns combatting serious crime and terrorism, we cannot support this being facilitated via the EU. As we believe these agreements should be conducted bilaterally, we abstained on this report.

Brexit Party MEPs have abstained on this consent vote. This is a technical amendment to bring the agreement in line with EU rules, and therefore we felt it most appropriate to abstain.

Although the Brexit party opposes EU tax harmonisation, and does not support EU legislation over the UK, these provisions would reduce the scope of VAT and so we abstained.

Brexit Party MEPs voted against this motion for a resolution. We do not support the EU spending trillions of euros and harmonising laws and targets. If Member States wish to achieve climate objectives, it should be on their own terms and not the EUs. Brexit Party MEPs voted on a number of amendments, in order to reduce the extent of targets and increases in EU legislation.

The Resolution regrets the loss of Freedom of Movement and seeks to reverse the burden of proof for Settled Status, accordingly the Brexit Party voted against.

The Brexit Party voted against this non-legislative report. Whilst we respect the importance of the human rights issues raised within this report we are opposed to the European Union becoming involved. We are firmly opposed to the increasing use of serious human rights issue abroad as justification for the enhancement of the EU's foreign policy apparatus.

The Brexit Party voted against this non-legislative report. We are opposed to the development of the EU's strategic autonomy and the further transfer of foreign policy decision making to the EU level.

The Brexit Party voted against this non-legislative report. We are opposed to the development of the European Defence Union. Defence of the realm is fundamental to nation-state sovereignty and should remain the responsibility of the member-states.

The Brexit Party MEPs abstained on this non-legislative, non-binding resolution. While there were elements in this report we opposed such as calling for transnational lists for EU elections, along with our concern this conference will just be an echo chamber for EU elites to convince themselves there needs to be greater centralisation of powers and spending of money at EU level, as the UK is leaving it wasn't our place to be part of those discussions.

The Brexit Party voted against this budgetary proposal. We would have supported the original Commission proposal as it reduced the amount of money in a number of EU budget lines and would lead to a reduction in Member States’ contributions for this year, thereby saving British taxpayers’ money. However, the rapporteur UK Labour MEP amended this resolution to redeploy the savings, meaning it would be spent in other areas of the EU budget instead of saving taxpayers’ money, so we voted against.

The Brexit Party has voted against this non-legislative resolution. The Brexit Party wholeheartedly supports free and fair elections, free speech and democratic accountability. These principles, in part, are integral in our cause to leave the European Union. We believe that reports of Russian electoral interference have already been exposed as baseless propaganda in order to shut down debate and discredit legitimate democratic exercises, such as the UK referendum. Furthermore, the Brexit Party voted against the third amendment because it maliciously – and incorrectly – stated that the Leave.eu campaign received funding from foreign actors despite the National Crime Agency clearing Leave.eu of these allegations in September.