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 Independent
nations are
better prepared to address or avoid negative externalities on their own terms
and
in their own contexts. As the years of ineffective bailout-for-austerity
policies accrue, an ever-increasing number of Europeans understand the brutal
inefficiencies of forced monoculture. The seeds of change have been sewn, and
the
future promises to be more diverse, more resilient, and more independent
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 As we approach
a referendum on the EU the MPs Sir Richard Shepherd and Peter Bone MP
discussed From Here to the Referendum
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 The European Union
cannot simply glue together twenty seven historically unique
states overnight, after thousands of years of history have shaped the
individual
cultures of each state. If political integration is to be continued without
popular
support, in the form of a European identity, then Eurosceptic member states
such as the United Kingdom, will continue to oppose membership
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 Scare stories are
being deployed in an attempt
to keep us as subjects of this damaging EU regime. The following short
articles address the four principal misstatements that, to
intimidate and confuse, will be disseminated with mounting intensity as the
prospect
of withdrawal from the EU attains reality. Here the Bruges Group rebuts the
four pro-EU lies
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 President Václav Klaus, of the Czech Republic, launched
his book - Europe: The Shattering of Illusions - at a meeting of the Bruges
Group in the House of Commons
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 On the
20th anniversary of the creation of the EU’s Single Market the Bruges Group
exposes how membership of the customs union is hurting our economy and
preventing Britain from competing on the world stage. We slay the
myth of EU Single Market membership
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How
Britain Can Exit The EU
Professor Tim Congdon
The Rt Hon. John Redwood MP
Gisela Stuart MP
 With the speakers; Rt
Hon. John Redwood MP, former Cabinet Member, and Gisela Stuart MP, Labour
Member of Parliament for Birmingham, Edgbaston. And Professor Tim Congdon CBE,
one of Britain’s leading economic commentators
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 The EU's
supporters have not stopped pressing
the regional concept, even if their approach has been adapted in the face of
public opposition. The re-branding by the coalition government via the
abolition of regional “assemblies” and their replacement with “Local
Enterprise Partnerships” should not be mistaken for victory against the effort
to corrode local governance and reduce voter input
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Freedom
from the EU
Hjörtur J Guðmundsson
Roger Helmer MEP
Mark Pritchard MP
 Roger Helmer MEP,
Member of the European Parliament, Mark Pritchard MP, a Member of the Joint
National Security Strategy Committee, & the Icelandic Journalist and
Historian, Hjörtur J Guðmundsson, spoke to the Bruges Group
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 The President
of the Czech Republic, Václav Klaus, spoke to the Bruges Group on
'European Integration Without Illusions'. President Klaus is Europe’s
leading statesman
opposing European centralisation. He argues that, ‘The manifestations of
transnational progressivism—global governance and the European
Union—are supplanting liberal democracy and nation-states and driving us into
the stage
of post-democracy'
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 The common
European interest is always couched in
terms of what is best for Europe as a whole, but when the peoples of Europe
are
not involved in what this means, it leaves supranational government to decide
what
is best for its people, and this is the historically sure path to decreased
freedom
and liberty, and increased governmental scope and expansion. In the EU, just
like any other form of despotism or dictatorship, democracy is given up in
preference for stability
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 Since
the beginning of history, national governments have provided the best means of
securing individual liberty. This could be said to be the primary purpose of
government. Theories voiced by John Locke and Thomas Hobbes are often cited as
foundational to modern views of government, and it is widely understood that
some form of government is necessary to protect citizens against both outside
invasion and the anarchic passions of the human condition. This freedom is now
under threat by the Supra-National institutions of the European Union
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 The damage that the
European Union is having on our economy and democracy as well as the harm it
is inflicting on the continent of Europe is now accepted by many bar those
from the international bureaucratic class. However, what is the answer to
these undeniable problems? Some are advocating that the UK’s terms of EU
membership should be renegotiated; others maintain that withdrawal from the EU
is the only realistic way to address the damage inflicted on Britain by the
EU
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Cameron’s reneging on his “Cast Iron Guarantee” to hold a referendum on the
Lisbon Treaty damaged trust in him, which contributed to his failure to gain a
full majority at the 2010 General Election. He now risks leading his Party to
the same fate as that of the Liberal Democrats, who have suffered dearly in
the estimation of the public for repeatedly failing to keep their manifesto
pledges
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 The historian
and broadcaster, Dr David Starkey, spoke at the Bruges Group's fringe
meeting at the Conservative Party Conference. Also addressing this event was
Mr Timo Soini the leader of the anti-EU bailout The Finns Party
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 The European Union
and the international bureaucratic class is a deadweight around the UK
suffocating inventiveness, economic growth and snuffing out prosperity. The
author and academic Professor Kenneth Minogue spoke at this meeting on
Excessive Governance and the Suffocation of Britain
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 The European
Union has enfeebled our parliamentary democracy. This Bruges Group meeting had
three important MPs who discussed the EU and its undermining of our democracy.
The author, environmental journalist and the Conservative Member of Parliament
for Richmond Park, Zac Goldsmith MP, spoke at this meeting alongside Kate Hoey
MP, a former Labour Minister. David Nuttall MP, the Conservative Member of
Parliament for Bury North; who was formerly a lawyer and local government
Councillor also addressed this event
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 This Bruges Group
meeting had important, influential and informative speakers that are prominent
in Britain’s Labour movement.
The respected economist and former economic advisor to Prime Minister Tony
Blair, Derek Scott, spoke at this event. Derek is the author of Off Whitehall
a book on the economics of EMU and the politics of Europe. Speaking alongside
him was Kelvin Hopkins MP a Labour Member of Parliament and member of the
European Scrutiny Committee
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 Britain’s democracy and sovereign independence, as well as our
economic wellbeing, have been grievously wounded by the UK’s membership of the
European Union. And according to many experts the Government’s EU Bill,
contrary to what has been claimed for it, at best does little to address this
and may actually weaken Parliamentary Sovereignty. To explore this the Bruges
Group instituted this meeting to discuss the important issues of Parliament,
the EU and National Sovereignty. The speakers were Bill Cash MP, Chairman of
the European Scrutiny Committee, and Peter Oborne, columnist for The Daily
Telegraph and author of The Rise of Political Lying and The Triumph of the
Political Class
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 Barry Legg,
Chairman of the Bruges Group, speaks to the 'Freedom in the Midlands'
group; a joint association between the Campaign Against Political Correctness
and The Freedom Association. Barry discussed why the UK should leave the
European Union
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 The
European Union is a structure of political power existing and working above
the level of the nation-state, the only body that allows democracy to
function
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 Lord Tebbit, a key
figure in British public life, and the respected Parliamentarian, Richard
Shepherd MP, flew the flag for democracy, freedom and the nation-state
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 The manifesto
commitments to take back powers from Brussels and to protect the UK from the
EU’s Charter of Fundamental Rights have been quietly dropped. To make matters
worse the pledge to hold a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty was abandoned. At
the 2010 Conservative Party Conference the Bruges Group made the case as to
Why the election pledges must be honoured
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 EU governance takes
place in a landscape of complex, half-hidden structures that in other
societies would suggest the ossified residue of centuries of struggle and
compromise. This
paper offers a sketch of this landscape
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 This
analysis draws upon international law,
official EU documents, and the comments of experts and
officials in order to demonstrate unequivocally that the
fundamental concerns of Eurosceptics about the nature of
European integration are grounded in solid fact
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 This paper
looks at EU policy towards 'climate change'. It shows that no process
of democratic oversight or investigation has preceded its decisions. It has
simply relied without question on the flawed IPCC reports and the Stern
Review. It has not initiated any independent research into or analysis of the
scientific basis of the case for global warming or the proportionate response
that should be made. The paper contrasts this with the rigorous process of
enquiry and research by successive US Congressional Committees into every
aspect of climate change
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 The Bruges
Group is pleased to announce the publication of 'A Crisis of Trust' by
Stuart Wheeler. It examines, in detail, the political culture that has grown
up in Britain since our accession to the EU. And it shows how the expenses
crisis is thoroughly the consequence of our suffering from a ‘Europeanised’
political class – with lavish expenses, PR and centralised party machines all
playing their part
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 It’s time
the three party leaders kept their parties’ promises that there would be a
referendum on the European Constitution. Nigel Dodds, MP, presented a private
members` bill to hold just such a vote
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 Keeping watch on the
European Union's plans and the laws it is forcing on the UK
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 The leading
economist Professor Tim Congdon warns of the dangers posed by the EU’s
unwarranted interference in the City of London, Britain’s most successful
industry; which is under threat from the EU. Professor Congdon discussed the
EU’s latest power grab where Brussels is aiming to complete its project to
take full control over financial services. Daniel Hannan MEP discussed the
Lisbon Treaty and the continuing assault on our democracy and our freedom. He
also talked about the coming crunch between Britain and Europe
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 This study
looks at how the European elites are in danger of creating a profound moral
and institutional crisis in Europe – a crisis of democracy. Those in the
Brussels elite who have power have not been elected, and those who have been
elected have no power
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 As the European
Union makes most of our new laws the Rt Hon. Peter Lilley MP and Martin Howe
QC discussed the EU and the destruction of Parliamentary democracy
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 John O'Sullivan
founder and Co-Chairman of the New Atlantic Initiative and Executive Editor of
Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty discused Europe, America and Democracy
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 In this paper it is
explained how successive British governments have surrendered our democracy to
layers of international bureaucracy which have acquired completely
unaccountable power over our legal, political, economic and social decisions.
At the heart of the matter, Professor Minogue argues, is the curious form of
idealism that disdains pride in Britain and British culture, preferring to
give allegiance to a far more vaguely defined ideology of internationalism.
This rejection of national sovereignty, and the subsequent embracing of
unaccountable transnational institutions, as advocated by our political
establishment, has led to the British people submitting to more and more
authority which comes dressed as virtue
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 On the day of the
final vote in the House of Lords on the Lisbon Treaty, Lord Willoughby de
Broke spoke on the EU, the House of Lords and the Lisbon Treaty. Gerry Frost
discussed the topic of Euroscepticism: Why has it failed?
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 British
eurosceptic think-tank, the Bruges Group, has welcomed the Irish 'No'
vote to the Lisbon Treaty, which is nothing more than the Constitutional
Treaty Mark II. The Constitutional Treaty had been rejected by the people of
France and Netherlands. Now the people of Ireland, the only country that had a
referendum on Lisbon, have also rejected the re-heated EU Constitution. The
peoples of other member states were refused a say on the Lisbon Treaty
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 In 2005 every major
party promised that the people of the United Kingdom will have a referendum on
the Constitutional Treaty. The Lisbon Treaty is clearly no different from the
previous one. This has been affirmed by numerous political leaders and
commentators. Yet the government, Labour MPs and the Liberal-Democrats do not
intend to honour their promise and vote for the referendum amendment
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 Bill Cash MP,
Lord Pearson of Rannoch, and John Hayes MP speak on the campaign against the
Lisbon Treaty, its progress through Parliament and why there must be a
referendum on the revived and renamed EU Constitution
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 In support
of the case for a referendum the Bruges Group is exposing the damage that the
Lisbon Treaty will do to our freedom, prosperity and democracy if it is
ratified. Our research clealy shows that the Lisbon Treaty is essentially the
same as the Constitution rejected in the French and Dutch referenda
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 Gordon
Brown’s Government has watered down the UK’s opt-out on justice & security
matters so that it becomes almost meaningless. As the text of the new treaty
to be decided at the IGC Summit this month has become available, no doubt can
remain in anybody’s mind that this is the same treaty that was rejected two
years ago by the electorates of France and the Netherlands. The Bruges Group
has pointed to many aspects of the text that show that those politicians who
maintained that the constitution had been saved were right and our own
government has been economical with the truth
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John Redwood MP, Champion of lower taxes and smaller government, and Syed
Kamall MEP, Member of the European Parliament and trade expert, demand that
the public have a say on the EU
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 The European
Parliament approves the mandate for the Reform Treaty and exposes the fact
that it is a guise for reviving the EU Constitution
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 The British
Government is conspiring with the EU to force through further integration
using Article 308 of Britain’s membership of the European Union
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 Roland Vaubel, Professor
of Economics at the University of Mannheim in Germany and member of the Bruges
Group, argues that the so-called Reform Treaty is really the EU Constitution
revived
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MEPs Daniel Hannan and Nigel Farage demand that the British people have the
final say on EU integration
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 Referring
directly to the once thought dead EU Constitution the IGC mandate agreement,
under the guise of bringing forth a new treaty to reform the EU, will bring in
the key aspects contained in the Constitution that were rejected in the French
and Dutch referenda
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Radical thinker and MP, Douglas Carswell, talks alongside the acclaimed
journalist and author, Christopher Booker, at the Bruges Group’s meeting
titled The EU: Options for Britain
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The author and political commentator Frederick Forsyth spoke to the Bruges
Group about the incompatibility between the destination of the EU and the
desired destiny of the UK and he discussed when it will no longer be possible
for any honest British politician to refuse to accept this
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 In the face of
questions on the future Conservative alliance in Brussels, the Bruges Group
today
proclaims its vocal support for a rapid and determined Conservative withdrawal
from the European
Peoples' Party
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 Two stalwarts of the
movement to protect democracy, prosperity and the British nation-state
addressed the Bruges Group on Tuesday, 25th April 2006
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 As the EU project
continues it is time to think outside the box and explore the alternatives to
the EU
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 It is two years
since Tony Blair promised a referendum on the EU Constitution. The Prime
Minister said in Parliament of the EU Constitution, “Then let the people have
the final say”. Surely this principle applies equally to the Constitution’s
contents if implemented piecemeal as to the document in its entirety? So
before the Prime Minister stands down from office, he must keep at least one
of his pledges and give us that say
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 One of the defining
aspects of a nation is that it is free to set laws and restrictions with
reference to its own historical, cultural and legal traditions. However, the
third of the Bruges Group's Micro guides shows how recent developments in
Brussels have thrown this into disarray. A technical decision made by the
European Court of Justice has turned the constitutional development of all EU
member states on their head. The Commission has taken upon itself the right to
overrule the European Parliament, the Council of Ministers and national
parliaments by reference to judgements of the highly partisan and activist
European Court of Justice (ECJ). The European Commission can now establish an
EU criminal code
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 The Conservative
alliance with the European People’s Party has become a hot topic and a major
debating point at all levels of the Party, from the prospective leaders to the
very grassroots. MEPs themselves have been throwing accusations and
counterclaims around via their extensive email lists of party activists. But
who is right? This short paper by the Bruges Group lays bare the facts behind
the Conservative Party's association with the EPP. The paper uncovers for
the first time key details about how the Party finds itself today still with
the group, and reveals the true behind-the-scenes story of a Eurosceptic
alliance that almost was, and still even now is very much on the cards. Far
from being a minor issue, the creation of a key new alliance will strengthen
the hand of those on the continent who oppose their nation sinking into a
federal EU
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 Calls for reform of
the European Union’s outmoded practices and policies are the latest platitudes
emanating from the Government during the British Presidency of the EU, even
Commission President José Manuel Durão Barroso has been calling
for change, but is this just propaganda or is there a chance that the
supporters of integration can be persuaded that the European project was a
mistake. In the first of the Bruges Group’s four page Micro guides Robert
Oulds analyses the ability of the EU to deliver the policies that Britain
needs to compete. The character, customs and culture of the European Union and
its member-states are also examined and the conclusions are stark
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 The Rt Hon. John
Redwood MP and Steve Richards, Chief Political Commentator of The Independent,
debated which direction the Conservative Party should take and its future
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 The booklet proves that
the EU is dragging Britain down and unless the alternatives to the EU are
explored integration will continue to threaten your job, your bank balance,
your democracy and your freedom
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Derek Scott,
Economics Advisor to the Prime Minister, 1997-2003, examines the response of
the British government and the rest of the EU to the French and the Dutch No
votes
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 Political correctness is
like a poisonous gas seeping through the air, creeping inside our national
institutions and taking over our great country. Political correctness is one
of the biggest peacetime threats to freedom this country has ever seen. The
major source of this is the European Union
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 Alternatives to EU
federalism and Conservative MPs and the Bruges Group deliver a petition to No.
10 Downing Street demanding that the PM halts implementing elements of the EU
Constitution
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 A referendum is still
urgently needed.
The British people still need to be consulted on the EU Constitution
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 The Europe of Delors,
Mitterand and Kohl is dead. No means no. Europe’s self-serving political elite
will make a profound mistake and create an awakening of bitterness if they try
to sidestep France’s historic vote
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 To highlight the
importance of the European question as an election issue a senior member of
the Bruges Group, Dr Lee Rotherham, is standing against the Europhile Europe
Minister Denis MacShane in the constituency of Rotherham. The voters will be
invited to decide
Who Governs Britain? Westminster or Brussels?
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 The Treaty Establishing a Constitution For the EU: An analysis of
the Constitution that makes the EU into a State
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 An analysis of
the terms of a renegotiated British membership of the European Union with a
Foreword by Lord Tebbit
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 The European
Constitution moves 63 areas to QMV compared to only 30 with the Maastricht
treaty. The Labour government has given away the veto in 70 areas since it
came into power and if the European Constitution is ratified the Labour
Government will have given away unanimity in 133 areas
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 What is the meaning
of the “constitution” of something resembling a new Soviet Union in Europe
that was presented to EU bosses at the end of June? How do its antecedents
shape predictions about how it will operate? Why is Tony Blair so keen on
promoting it? What will be its impact on Britain and on the “new Europe” drawn
from the debris of the original Soviet Union and its satellites? And how will
it affect the operation of international capital markets and of the world
economic system?
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 The EU's Common
Agricultural Policy and French-inspired aggressive trade practices, such as
the dumping of sugar on the world market is according to Michael Moore
"literally killing people in the third world. In fact it is killing more
people than all of Dubya's bombs"
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 The Signing of the
EU Constitution: a typically undemocratic day for the EU. The Constitutional
Treaty that Tony Blair signed today is not a tidying up exercise – it is the
latest and biggest step in the creation of a country called the European
Union.
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 A summary of our
relationship with 'Brussels', including the case for the United
Kingdom to leave the EU. As the fourth biggest economy in the world, as its
third largest trading nation, and as a major military power, leaving the EU
would be a liberating, refreshing, positive, modern thing to do. And we would
be very much richer as well!
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The EU's world view and international ambitions will create a world
where big brother knows best. Their supranationalism dictates that cordial
deals should be struck with tyrants. It dictates that international relations
should not be a matter governed by the democratically elected governments of
nation-states. Instead international affairs, and subsequently every other
matter, should be handed to supranational institutions and regional blocks
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The third of the Bruges Group’s papers on the draft EU Constitution studies
the cloak of subsidiarity – the Eurospeak term – used to disguise the
ever-increasing arrogation of powers to the institutions of the European
Union. John Bercow seeks to analyse the history of subsidiarity and rebut the
claim that the EU Constitution safeguards the role of national Parliaments. He
also provides further evidence that the Constitution does not define the
limitations and extent of EU power and is not just another power grab.
According to John Bercow it also enables the EU to further expand its power to
unprecedented and virtually limitless proportions. In short, the EU
Constitution will accelerate the EU's legislative imperialism.
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Andrew Rosindell, former Chairman of the National Young Conservatives, the
European Young Conservatives and the International Young Democrat Union,
speaks about the Conservative Party, the EU and he outlines his unique
solution to change the face of Europe.
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Professor Kenneth Minogue argues that the EU's rigidity will be the
downfall of the 'European Project'
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Launch of New Paper No. 44
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Britain must make a choice: Europe or America / more government or less.
Extracts of an address to the Bruges Group on Wednesday, 13th March 2002.
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Nigel Farage, UKIP Member of the European Parliament sounds a timely
warning in this much-needed paper published by the Bruges Group. Disregarding
the conventional media obsession with Inter-Governmental Conferences and even
the newly demonstrated interest in the European Convention, presided over by a
long-retired former President of France, Mr Farage analyses the less
well-known but more sinister White Paper on Governance.
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In a new Bruges Group Paper, Dr Cris Shore details the way a ‘culture of
supranationalism’ has been used to advance European Union integration. Dr
Shore’s studies of the EU bureaucracy itself reveal a culture mired in
scandals, corruption and nepotism – a stark warning for the peoples of Europe.
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Based on first-hand anthropological research into the European Commission
and its civil servants, this paper explores the role of 'culture' in
the process of European integration; how European policy-makers have
appropriated concepts of 'culture' and 'identity' since the
1980s; and whether the 'organisational culture' of the EU institutions
represents a microcosm of European unity, in practice, for Europe's people
at large.
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The author of "The Rotten Heart of Europe" explains what is
really behind the drive for European integration.
Speech to The Bruges Group Annual Conference, 3rd November 2000
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The authors examine Central Bank independence and the ECB and determine
that independence itself offers dubious anti-inflationary prospects and that
the ECB as constituted is anti-democratic and economically inept.
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