UK MEPs fined after EU treaty protest

Four British MEPs have been fined hundreds of pounds for staging an EU treaty referendum protest in the European parliament.

The president of the European parliament, Hans-Gert Pöttering, has docked the allowances of MEPs involved in the disruption of the parliament last December.

Dozens of MEPs, many of them from the Conservative party and the UK Independence party, disrupted business in the parliament in Strasbourg by heckling at and protesting against EU leaders who signed the new EU charter of fundamental rights.

As Pöttering, José Manuel Barroso, the president of the European commission, and the Portuguese prime minister, José Socrates, signed the charter - which Britain says will not apply in the UK - the British-led band of Europhobic MEPs unveiled banners and T-shirts demanding a referendum on the EU treaty.

Nine MEPs face sanctions as a result, including British Conservative MEP Roger Helmer, independent MEP Jim Allister and Ukip’s Roger Knapman, who will all lose three days’ allowance. The MEPs’ daily allowance is €287.
Ukip MEP Godfrey Bloom learned he will be fined two days’ allowance for his part in the fracas.

Gary Titley MEP, Labour’s leader in Europe, denounced the protest: “I hope we have seen the back of those bully-boy tactics. Democracy is about respecting each other.”

Bloom said: “A quarter of a million people voted for me to protest against the EU and I’m not going to stop doing that because a few Euro-nationalists decide to take away my pocket money.

“I was proud to stand shoulder to shoulder with MEPs from across Europe to protest at the repulsive behaviour of the European parliament.

“It’s probably hard for these chaps to understand because they’re a bit tight, but the people they have made suffer with these proposals are the small charities because that’s who I give my allowances to.”

Knapman said he was too long in the tooth to be told what to do by a German president.

Hélène Mulholland

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