Lib Dem Chris Davies sticks up for Ukip’s EU whistleblower

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Lib Dem Chris Davies sticks up for Ukip’s EU whistleblower

By Stephen Tall | Tue 21st July 2009 - 3:30 pm

Follow @stephentall

The Telegraph reports:

Marta Andreason, the former Brussels whistle blower sacked by Lord Kinnock, has been blocked from taking a senior position at the European Parliament by MEPs fearful of future ‘scandal’.

Mrs Andreasen was blocked by Christian Democrat and Socialist MEPs from becoming vice-chairman of the European Parliament’s budgetary committee on Monday.

The centre-Right European People’s Party and the Socialists broke parliamentary convention on the allocation of committee posts by demanding a vote by secret ballot to block Mrs Andreasen, who was elected as a Ukip MEP for South East England last month.

Lib Dem MEP for the North-West Chris Davies is not pleased:

… [he] attacked the “shameful decision” to hold a secret ballot so the MEPs could not be “held accountable for their actions”.

“The message it sends to the public is that anyone who speaks out against malpractice in Europe risks being excluded from office,” he said.

Good on Chris, both for sticking up for the EU reform agenda, and for sticking up for due process.

Read more by Stephen Tall or more about chris davies, european parliament, marta andreason or ukip.
This entry was posted in Europe / International and News.

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2 Comments

Cogload 21st Jul '09 - 4:54pm

Charlemagne in the Economist stuck the boot in @ the weekend as well.

Time to abolish it. The job it supposedly does can be done more effectively by National Parliaments (see also The German Constitutional Court’s judgement on the European Constitution).
Jon 21st Jul '09 - 4:59pm

Well done Chris Davies indeed. If a few more of our MPs had been consistent with their principles we might be a lot stronger than we are today.

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