mr president the european union claims to embrace fine principles about freedom and democracy and they are all restated and reinforced in the lisbon treaty but time and again we turn a blind eye to blatant transgressions taking place in one member state or another
we do not point the finger at those who fail to support the principles upon which the european union is based
we do not like to rock the boat but we had the chance today to take a stand and to say that control of the press by the italian prime minister is a clear abuse
there are problems in other member states but in italy it is at its worst
thanks to the votes of the uk independence party and the british conservatives we lost today by one vote there was one vote in it
the conservatives in britain say they want to repatriate social and employment policy from the european union
they do not say that they also want to prevent the european union having any role whatsoever in standing up for the basic freedoms that support democracy across europe
