mr president in the uk there are now two four hundred and sixty zero unemployed
youth unemployment is twenty in the uk
in france youth unemployment is twenty-four
it is twenty-five in italy and an incredible thirty-nine in spain
big companies have been firing people for the last two years and they will continue to do so
the best hope for the unemployed is with small and micro-enterprises
however eu directives make it difficult for micro-enterprises to operate successfully
eu regulations stifle their growth and for once the commission is doing something sensible with its proposal to exempt micro-enterprises from some accounting regulations
in the uk we have over one point seven million micro-firms
if these firms were able to hire just one additional person the uk's severe unemployment problem would in large part be solved
we have all received the circular from mr sterckx and his friends
mr sterckx and his friends oppose this partly on the basis that exempting very small firms from the full blast of eu accounting directives somehow runs counter to the single market
this is a completely ludicrous argument which only a belgian member of the alde group could possibly have come up with
i know that in this parliament if you criticise belgium or the belgians you get fined but i would remind you of a bit of history
ninety-six years ago britain entered the first world war in order to protect the territorial integrity of belgium
i would suggest that mr sterckx partly repay that obligation by ceasing to attempt to destroy britain's economy and britain as a nation state
