Last night Breitbart London reported that the European Parliament’s plans to vote and debate on the “shady” Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership deal with the United States had been thrown into disarray on the back of major public backlash.
E-mail from Martin Schulz delaying TTIP
The planned parliamentary activity today was called into question late last night, as a leaked e-mail from the Parliament’s president at 10pm reveals. Sent directly from Martin Schulz, it reads:
“Group leaders representing a majority in the Conference of Presidents have informed me that they want the report by Mr Lange on TTIP to be postponed.
“At this stage, such a change can be made only on a proposal by the President to amend the agenda in accordance with Rule 152. In order to enable the House to vote on the change suggested, I have agreed to make such a proposal.
“Therefore, at the opening of the sitting at 8 a.m., the proposal to postpone the report by Mr Lange will be put to the House.”
Breitbart London understands that both the Conservative group backed Schulz’s move to delay the debate, whereas all but 3 UKIP MEPs opposed it, with the others not voting. Half of Labour’s MEP’s opposed the move, with the other 10 not voting.
A Conservative spokesman in Strasbourg told Breibart London: “On the debate – call us old fashioned but we think it’s best to know what a report says before we debate it. This report is now back with committee and we don’t know what will come back to plenary. So we voted to have the debate just before the vote, when that comes, when the issues will still be fresh in MEPs’ minds as they decide.”
The voting record showing Tory MEPs voting against having a debate today can be found here, and Breitbart London understands from further leaked e-mails that the report is due back in the plenary in July.
Speaking earlier, Nigel Farage, MEP and leader of UKIP, said: “In my 17 years as an MEP I’ve never received so much communication from the public on a proposed piece of legislation. The TTIP has concerned millions of people across the European Union. They have bombarded their MEPs with phone calls, letters and emails and in response to this the EU is now running scared.”
“They’ve got the wind up, particularly the left, who have been supporting TTIP from the start and finally have been exposed as backing large scale global corporatism.”
“The parliament suspended today not just the vote, but equally the debate on this issue which I think was cowardly in the extreme. It is interesting to note that for the first time ever actions in the European Parliament are now being heavily debated in Washington, too. Perhaps we need a redefinition of what a free trade deal is.”
William Dartmouth, UKIP MEP for the South West and Gibraltar and spokesman on trade, said: “Today the establishment, particularly the British Conservatives, clubbed together to stop the debate happening. The Transatlantic Trade Investment Partnership (TTIP) is a matter of huge public interest and even greater concern. It is utterly wrong for the parties in the European Parliament, led by the Conservatives, to suppress debate. We need to have debate, we need to understand what is going on.”
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