mr president thank you for giving me this opportunity to explain how i voted
it may come as no surprise to you that i actually voted in favour of this report given that the author was a very good conservative british colleague of mine
what we need to be wary of in these times of economic difficulties is the call for ever more protectionism and the call to suspend our normal rules on competition and state aid
we see the call for protectionism from president sarkozy arguing that taxpayers money should be used to protect the french car industry
we see similar packages in america
i was interested when i saw an advertisement the other day in an american magazine sponsored by the american car companies which said you did not want to buy our cars
therefore we are going to take your money anyway through your taxpayers money to keep our companies alive
this is what it seems to have come down to
because the companies were not supplying the goods and services that consumers wanted to buy we are now throwing aside rules on state aid and keeping up companies that may not survive in the long term
we understand the importance of jobs but let us make sure that we are making good economic decisions
