What are MEPs there to do? (Part 1 - the day job)

In my view they have five main roles:

1. To stand up for the interests of the region for which they are elected and for British interests
2. To hold the Commission to account for the spending of the EU budget and end the scandal of the EU budget not having being signed off by the auditors for the past 13 years, if necessary by the threat to withhold UK budget contributions
3. To ensure that the Commission does not exceed its powers in implementing decisions by the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament
4. To enact legislation to complete the European Single Market
5. To review the body of European law – the so called acquis communautaire, which comprises according to different estimates of between 80,000 and 170,000 pages – and propose repeal of, or the introduction of “sunset ” clauses to, those parts which are no longer necessary

But the European Parliament does not – and should not – exist to decide matters such as how the euro zone works, which countries should adopt the euro, which countries should belong to the EU or constitutional issues such as the adoption of the Treaty of Lisbon.

Of course it wins headlines when Conservative MEPs make high profile protests about the European Parliament’s actions on matters such as the Treaty of Lisbon – but it’s also a distraction from the serious business of proposing an alternative way of making Europe work for Britain, something which we still haven’t done as a Party.

And in the EU if you don’t have a Plan B for others to support (call it the Treaty of London as I have in various earlier posts), you will surely end up with a Plan A which you don’t want….