BREXIT - Relive Nigel Farage vs Tony Blair EU clash at European Parliament

Prime Minister, six months ago you came here, you impressed everyone with your reform agenda, including me. I told him that if he achieved his goals, I would support him. Economic reform was the cry and within a couple of weeks the Commission had proposed repealing sixty-eight new laws. I thought maybe Blair would do it, maybe he would really reform and change, but no, under his presidency there have been three thousand three hundred and fifty new pieces of legislation, a total failure in the economic reform of the CAP, you said you would work for a I suppose because you have twenty-four countries against CAP reform until 2014, in the budget you said that the UK rebate would not be waived, which I think you have achieved. given away seven billion pounds of British taxpayers' money for nothing in return, its only achievement is to start talks with Turkey, which is opposed by the vast majority of people in Europe and which will lead to an even bigger bill. why should British taxpayers pay for new sewers in Budapest for a new metro system in Warsaw, when our own public services are collapsing in London, why should we pay?

Why should we pay a cent to an organization whose accounts have not been approved by auditors for the last 11 consecutive years? The budget deal is a game-changer for President Chirac, no monkey who eats cheese and gives up. He, unlike you, defends the French national interest, not some foreign notion of Europe, and is surpassed and surpassed at every turn. The only real achievement of his is that Great Britain. now you are isolated, alienated, we are completely alone within the European Union, that is why it has been said before, wait a minute, everyone else has an extra minute, mr.

President, I ask you for 10 seconds, thank you, for that, Prime Minister, I owed it to you. It has often been said that he wanted to be the permanent president of Europe. Please stay six more months in the British presidency and them. They will thank us mr. President, when the Prime Minister came to Strasbourg in October I told him that he had come to examine the shattered remains of his European dreams. I didn't realize then how extensive those remains would be. It is bad enough that he has failed to implement the ambitious reforms. which he promised in June, but as a British Conservative I am dismayed by the way he has failed our country and my East Midlands constituents earlier this year.

Prime Minister, you boasted that the British check was not on the table and then you put it on the table. and boasted of being the first Prime Minister to do so, but only in exchange for a radical reform of the budget and the CAP, now he is selling it in slices of salami with nothing in return but fool's gold and empty promises, it is not no wonder Gordon Brown has said no one believes a word you say anymore Britain's favorite newspaper son says Tony Blair is going to hand over billions of pounds in taxpayer cash and get nothing in return in his December 1 editorial said this is a betrayal, a betrayal, the Prime Minister is not a nice word, not my word, the word of my children, but I and millions of readers children agree that you are giving away, you are giving away a huge sum of money simply as a fig leaf for your failure, but it is not your money, it is not the government's money, it is our money it is the taxpayers' money, they tell me Prime Minister, they tell me that you are worried about his legacy.

I can tell you what your legacy will be. He will be remembered as the man who squandered Margaret Thatcher's legacy. There is M in my experience in politics there are three groups of people first of all the reactionaries let me tell you sir and your colleagues you sit with the flag of our country you do not represent the interests of our country this this is the year 2005 this is the year 2005 not 1945 we are no longer fighting among ourselves, these are our partners, they are our colleagues and our future is in Europe and when you and your colleagues say what we get in exchange for what we contribute to enlargement, I tell you what. let us achieve a unified Europe after years of dictatorship in the East let us achieve economic development in the countries we have defended let us achieve future reform that will allow us to put an end once and for all to the debate on reimbursements, the Common Agricultural Policy and achieve a budget of reform suitable for Europe that is what we will get if we have division to take advantage of that opportunity the second group Nova Freight is not a group that I have ever come across in politics the second group with the greatest respect to one or two of my colleagues who spoke at the beginning are the commentators, the people who, like I believe you, sir, said that we should not worry about our national prospects but think only about Europe when we come to negotiate the budget.

Look, let's put some reality into this. not only well, I'm glad you added that not only because when you are the leader of a national country and you come to the European negotiation it is honestly inevitable that people are going to defend their national interests the great challenge of Europe and In reality, it is a great achievement that, even though people naturally and correctly defend their national interests, they can still reach a collective agreement and, look, I am very aware of the fact that the budget agreement that we reached in the early hours of Saturday morning is not the right budget agreement for the future of Europe, that is my case, it is not, but what it does do is allow us, in the meantime, before achieving the fundamental reform that we want to see, to liquidate the budget in a way that allows the new countries that come to Europe to have some certainty about the future financial perspectives, if they don't have them, then we will be able to express our opinions in this Parliament or in the Council, but in the meantime they suffer and I think that when we put that money extra for Central and Eastern Europe is not a cost to us, it is an investment in our collective future.

I really believe that and I think that if you look at what will happen in the future as those countries grow, some of them are already talking within a few years of becoming net contributors to the European budget is a fantastic thing for them, to even think about not to talk about achieving it, but we have to give them that budget certainty now that many people have talked about my June speech, let me go back to what I said in June what I said in June was that we had to do a fundamental reform not only of the budget but also the way in which Europe adopted its policy and carried it out in the meantime I said we had to try to get a financing agreement now I think of this in two stages: the first is to achieve a budget agreement that allows people to be certain of that at least Europe can move forward instead of continuing to argue about the budget and I know it is not ideal, but it is the best we can In my opinion, at this moment until we move in 2008 to a process that allows us that fundamental reform.

Now I think in hours to raise my hand here, who wants a fundamental reform of the European budget. We probably have a majority of people. I think that's true, most people now understand that we need a reformed budget and that it's not just about the check or the common agricultural policy, but from the beginning, what do we want to spend? How do we spend it? What do we spend it on? How do we spend it? We make sure people pay according to their wealth and receive according to their needs now. That would be a sensible budget.

We don't have that right now, but we have a process now that allows us to get there, so if I can say to the commentary class, I understand why people say, "I'm sorry my grandfather left his seat," he said he was in a difficult time with the British media, well thanks for helping with the problem of the commentator classes, when they say we are actually on their side with a pro-European case, they prefer to make the criticisms and then go out and confront the skeptical media . I have to do it, but I don't mind doing it as long as people understand that, whatever it is, you're involved in any politics, it's not about commenting on the end that does it, it's doing it that does it, and that leads me to we will do it, thank you, that leads me. to the points that were made by both curtain hands and a colleague of I mean, of course, we will work closely with you to try to develop that reform and I agree with you, for example, and on things like justice and the Affairs of the Interior and a common foreign security policy, we need to be able to do more, but as I say, let's hope that in the coming years we can see our way to achieve it.

I would just say to our Green Party colleague: you know it's not just talk about development and climate change. I mean, my country, Britain, has tripled its aid to Africa, the European Union as a whole has now agreed to double its aid budget to Africa, which is a big step forward, and when it comes to climate change, I know why all the problems have arisen and why people say: well, you are not making as much progress as you should, but let's not reject it, we reached an agreement in Montreal and that agreement at least helps pave the way for a fundamental framework that will involve not only to the countries currently involved in Kyoto but also to the United States, China and India, and that is important for the future and that really brings me to my final point.

I want to point out that at this stage, which is just to say this to colleagues, there is a lot of talk about how we know what people in Europe and I think our communist friends said. You already know what the problem is in relation to the citizens of Europe and how they feel about Europe. Look, the citizens of Europe basically want Europe to address problems that they know can only be addressed through collective action at a supranational level. what they believe about Europe and, therefore, they know that a single economic space cannot be achieved without European action.

They know that this should have a social dimension. They also know that on issues such as terrorism, migration and the environment, it is necessary for Europe to act together and we can see today in Bosnia, Indonesia and elsewhere how the common foreign security policy can really benefit the citizens of Europe. My point is very simple: none of this could be defended or brought to light on the streets of Europe unless we dissolve the budget deal, so let's be very clear: this is not the ideal budget, but it is the best that can be done now or almost the best that can be done now, so, all together, Commission, Council, Member States, European Parliament, let's figure out how to do it in the coming years. years we will be able to build the consensus for a changed and reformed Europe in which the budget is a rational part of that future and not an unfortunate haggling based on the way the budget has grown over the years in the past, we can now Let's do that if we have the political will to do it, but the reactionaries or the commentators will not do it with the greatest respect, the doers will do it, thank you.