By Jeffrey Titford MEPIT has been a bleak few days in Brussels for those of us who believe that Britain should be governed by a democratically elected Government based in Westminster and not an unelected cabal of European Commissioners.

By Jeffrey Titford MEP

IT has been a bleak few days in Brussels for those of us who believe that Britain should be governed by a democratically elected Government based in Westminster and not an unelected cabal of European Commissioners. We have seen the Commission ruthlessly exploit a decision by the European Court of Justice in September, which gave it the right to extend its powers into the enforcement of criminal penalties in environmental law and seven new areas.

Chillingly, the Commission is now saying that it can create criminal penalties to enforce the entire body of EU law. What is so new in this development is not so much the fact that the EU is taking yet more power away from national governments but that this particular power-grab is being so being so publicly formalised.

Under these proposals, Britain will lose control of decision making on prosecution and the ability to set penalties. This will open the door for people in this country to be prosecuted by diktat from Brussels for crimes, such as xenophobia, which do not even exist under British law. Bear in mind that definitions of xenophobia differ from country to country. Some would regard EU-realists, such as myself, who oppose the EU on democratic and economic grounds as xenophobes.

Not since the time of Henry VIII has any power, other than the British Crown, possessed the right to create criminal offences in this country and set the penalties for breaking them. It should be noted that when this matter was first referred to the European Court, eleven of the then fifteen member states opposed the idea. The Court chose to ignore the views of eleven democratically elected governments.

A Commission lawyer has stated that it could compel the British Government to punish its citizens for offences that are not on the statute book here and, furthermore, if there were to be any reluctance to take such action, then the Government itself would be taken to the European Court of Justice to answer for its dilatoriness. The Court would then act as judge and jury in its own case. So much for the separation of powers of the executive, legislature and judiciary, which have protected freedoms in this country for centuries.

Naturally, the UKIP MEPs are doing what they can to oppose this disaster. We are putting our names to a Motion of Resolution which calls upon the Heads of State and Government to convene an extraordinary meeting to rule on a decision to veto the judgement of the European Court. This document will be submitted to the President of the European Parliament with an instruction that it be passed to the President of the EU, who, as you will doubtless be aware is one Tony Blair!

Make no mistake, if this goes power-grab is not resisted, it amounts to nothing less than a judicial coup d'etat.

jtitford@europarl.eu.int

Jeffrey Titford is one of two UK Independence Party MEPs for the East of England.