Dear All
Just as 2014 had all eyes in the UK
fixated on the Scottish independence referendum, 2015 is shaping up to be
firmly focused on the EU despite it being a Westminster election.
What has focused the agenda this way?
The rise of Ukip led by Nigel Farage, the party has tapped into a strong
undercurrent of discontent that ordinary people across feel because of the way
they have been treated. Previous decisions made by the mainstream parties in
the past have come home to roost, it isn’t just voters who are deserting them;
their rank and file members are feeling they have no common cause to continue
their support. If you can’t get heard in your party, what is the point of
continually supporting it or even voting for it?
Ukip is expected to do well in England . Already Douglas Carswell’s
re-election has caused the mainstream political parties to rethink their
previously entrenched positions. The Labour Party due to its problems hasn’t
signed up for a referendum on the European Question of should we remain as part
of the EU.
There is a strong case for leaving the EU.
Equally, a strong case could be made to stay in and reform
the organisation, the real trouble is that this has never happened properly
despite several treaties by member states. At present there are 28 members of
the European Union, much has changed since the early days of the EU when the
focus was on better trading ties with the club.
Over the years we have seen good things come out of the EU
such as the European Court of Justice and the judgements made on Human Rights
have benefited people in Britain .
The real trouble with human rights is the law, but the people who put their
interpretation on it which has rendered in some cases bizarre judgements. Law
in itself is very interesting as a topic because it touches on other policies
and how they are enacted or curtailed.
On the issue of immigration, the EU policy is free movement
of Labour.
What does that mean?
It means if I wished to go work in Poland and
there was a job for me, I could just up sticks and potter off to live there. By
the same token if someone from Germany
wished to come and teach at Glasgow
University and was
offered a position, they too could come over and setup a new life.
The reality of the EU policy of free movement of Labour has
gone wrong; it isn’t free movement of Labour but in effect just free movement.
Sometime ago, I wrote about my idea for an internal EU immigration policy which
in my mind was sorely needed to address this problem. Although the UK
Government is trying to put in measures, the solution needs to be an EU wide
solution and not just a British response to a domestic crisis. This should have
been sorted out in a proactive rather than reactive manner which we now find
ourselves in.
The UK
has been in the EU for circa 40 years, that is a long time to be a member, but
the direction of travel hasn’t always been on the right road. Nation states
need to be able to exercise their sovereignty more than they have been able to
do so, un-hampered by Brussels .
That doesn’t mean decisions should be green lit by a Nation just on the basis
of dislike or to get a government out of a local difficulty, the rules should
be based on fairness. I have always believed that an internal EU immigration
policy was always the way to go, rather than things being done piecemeal by
legal judgments and verdicts.
Under my idea, each EU country would set criteria
for people from other EU states who wished to live there; this would be done by
the host country in conjunction with the EU. This would mean each Nation state
sets a criteria which would apply to everyone from outside that country who is
an EU citizen, it would mean that the same rules would apply to a German, a
Frenchman, a Polish man or a Romanian if they wanted to live in there.
An EU court has ruled what is termed benefit tourists can be
excluded from welfare schemes. It seems to me that rather than this situation
of piecemeal which is a running sore and source of annoyance which doesn’t
satisfy anyone, they would be better adopting my idea right across the entire
EU.
Anyway, the European Court of Justice has declared EU member
states must have 'the possibility of refusing' social benefits to 'economically
inactive' EU citizens. This is the start of a recognition that free movement of
Labour must not now been seen as purely just free movement. We aren’t anywhere
near an internal EU immigration policy because there isn’t the political will
for it, especially by the German leader Angela Merkel who is said to be opposed
any restriction to the current setup.
Now, Britain
can ban European Union migrants from claiming "special non-contributory
cash benefits" for up to five years, this is a landmark judgement in Luxembourg . In
many ways it is long overdue but doesn’t fix the problem but it is certainly
moved the ground a little.
The EU courts have ruled that it is up to the member states’
own Government, not Brussels ,
as to how it will draft the appropriate legislation that that excludes foreign,
European nationals from claiming social assistance benefits. If you look at
this in isolation, you would be tempted to think it is unfair as a first
reaction, but there is a wider picture to consider were the rules have been
abused by people who aren’t residents dubbed benefit tourists, in some cases
they claim for their children, who aren’t even in the country.
That is entirely wrong, it is an abuse of the system and it
should be stopped.
The landmark ruling has other implications such as allowing
countries to assert their national sovereignty over out-of-work welfare
benefits. Importantly, the European Court of Justice has stopped unemployed
migrants from using human rights legislation to appeal against measures
blocking them from benefits.
Although, this is legal, I feel the way this has been gone
about doesn’t sit well, because the entire situation is in need of reform, and
I keep coming back to it being an EU wide solution. Ironically, this test case
was brought to the Court from Germany ;
it confirmed that governments can treat European jobseekers differently from
their own nationals. The case involved two Romanian nationals, Elisabeta Dano
and her son Florin, who were refused benefits in Leipzig
because she "did not enter Germany
in order to seek work there".
She and her son have been residing in Germany since
November 2010.
The Court said:
"One of the conditions for a right of residence is that
economically inactive persons must have sufficient resources of their own."
A Germany
internal EU immigration policy it appears. If you google on my previous posts
and comments elsewhere, you will find I also stated a criteria need to be set
along those lines regarding funds and other relevant issues relating to
employment. I used an analogy previously regarding the people wanting to study
medicine, if a person was rejected after applying because they had no
qualifications, it won’t be discrimination or an injustice, it would simply be
that they didn’t fulfil the criteria, the person may not like it but that
didn’t stop them in the past preparing to make their transitional move.
And at the same time, they would have no recourse to EU
human rights laws because there isn’t unfairness attached to the ruling. This
is the bit that is a problem for some people, in general people should have
access to justice, but justice cannot and shouldn’t be used to patch over
political holes in the dyke.
The Court said:
"The directive on free movement of EU citizens and the
regulation on the coordination of social security systems do not preclude
domestic legislation which excludes nationals of other member states from
entitlement to certain ‘special non-contributory cash benefits’, although they
are granted to nationals of the host member state who are in the same situation.".
The European Commission has welcomed the judgment as
bringing "more clarity" to the rules on EU free movement.
It gives a temporary fix which doesn’t address certain wider
issues that need to be debated. And that is another of the systematic problems;
politicians don’t want to debate this openly because of the nature of the topic.
So it is left to the Courts to decide matters.
Whereas people are willing to shout ‘racist’ for political
advantage, when judgment comes via the Court, they can’t exercise their brand
of political fascism to exploit a situation for votes.
But really there should be the political will by politicians
on this matter.
Unsurprisingly there has been a lot of failure to lead. We
elect politicians because we realise we can’t have the political will of mob
enacted, politicians are supposed to the safeguard of reasoned judgement,
abandoned in pursuit of their own political personal agendas.
2015, although a Westminster election is probably going to
be dominated by the EU, Ukip should improve their situation, but they could do
more by adopting a reformist platform to run alongside their desire for an
in/out referendum rather than leave others to do the spade work. This landmark
judgment actually works very well for Ukip because it gives in some way
recognition of their stance that a problem exists, it also helps the
Conservatives to a degree but it does nothing for the Labour Party.
Labour need to adopt the idea of an internal EU immigration
policy….. but won’t!
Labour leader Ed Miliband says he is the descendent of
immigrants, fair enough; his problem is getting the ingenious population to
vote for him.
He keeps saying, ‘I am on your side’!
According to the polls, people don’t seem to believe that
statement which could be a real problem for him.
Yours sincerely
George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University
1 comment:
The problem of benefit tourism should have been recognised from the start and measures taken to make it an unattractive option, before widening the membership of the EU to citizens from Eastern Europe. I have no doubt that many people from the EU live productive lives whilst here but the public perception is different with people begging and selling the big issue. My brother lives in the South East and says the pressure for jobs is intense in all sectors. I have no doubt that the UKIP phenomenon is due in a large part to the disenfranchisement of the working class all over the country whilst politicians pay lip service to it. I don't see any sign of reform in the near future right enough the Western EU members would need to address it all at once and in such a manner that it would be impervious to a challenge. To be honest I doubt the political will is there at the moment .
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