George Hollingbery on Europe

No-one can honestly offer themselves as a Conservative candidate without saying what they think about the European question.

It’s an area where I find it very difficult to pick an absolute path.

I have no doubts as to the deep intrusion into our lives that the EU makes. Over recent times there are many areas where everyday life has been affected by EU directives that Westminster has never discussed. Here are just three small examples:

The change at Royal Mail that meant post is delivered by size rather than weight; the recycling targets for councils that force them to adopt schemes such as “Alternate Weekly Collection” of recycling and refuse; the loss of many pesticides to gardeners because the EU requires a very expensive registration process that makes it uneconomic for manufacturers to service small markets.

All these have been adopted by the Government without MPs having any opportunity to discuss them.
That cannot be right.

BUT I find it very difficult to accept that the right and only solution to this is to withdraw from the EU.
In a world faced with problems that have to be addressed by all of us, nation states are no longer big enough building blocks to create consensus. When we are faced with issues such as the credit crunch, climate change, global terrorism, the crisis in energy provision and pan continental immigration flows, supranational bodies must be more effective advocates than individual nations.

What is needed is for the UK to be able to reclaim control over those matters which clearly make more sense being controlled at a national level.

Further, the EU is clearly missing the democratic structures that allow citizens to feel that they are involved in governance. Far too often we are told what we have to do.

This democratic deficit must be addressed if the EU is to be made to work for all its citizens and I believe we can only do that from inside the structure.

More on the Conservative Party's thoughts on Europe can be found here.