Nigels Farage's Speech Dtd, 25th September 2010

Berlin, September 25th 2010

SPEECH OF NIGEL FARAGE MEP

President of the Europe of Freedom and Democracy Group in the European Parliament,
spokesman for the UK Independence Party

Euro Action Conference in Berlin, 25th September 2010

First of all, my compliments to those professors who have been brave enough to take this
challenge to the German Constitutional court. It takes great strength and courage to swim
against the tide of a media and academic environment which is continuously and fanatically
pushing an agenda of EU political integration. You knowledgeable and visionary people have
taken a stand of which you can be proud, a stand which is principled, and protective of the
highest ideals of German democracy. I am here today to show my support and encourage
you all to continue the vital work you have already started.

You have taken the first step in the fight against the construction of an EU empire, centred in
Brussels.
If you travel to Northern Africa today, in the hot sands of Egypt for example, you can see the
ruins of opulent buildings of the once mighty Roman Empire. The remnants of the courts, and
palaces and gymnasia of the Roman Empire are dotted all over this continent and others.
People were once taught to believe that the Roman Empire would last forever, that it was
invincible, indestructible - and most importantly they thought it was inevitable. That here was
no alternative but to be obedient and to submit to its political and military power. This was not
true.
A study of history shows us that large multi-national empires, or political unions if you like, do
not work. They do not function properly and furthermore, do not survive. Where today is the
Roman Empire, the Ottoman Empire, or the Austrio-Hungarian Empire? They are all finished,
their once proud monuments covered over by the sands of time.

Spurred on by events, the peoples of these once powerful political unions, acted to seek
one of the most precious things that a people can possess - their freedom and the ability to
determine their own future.

The EU project is not about peace but about an elite gaining more power.

Frequently the builders of these empires appeal to those whom they rule over, saying
that they want to build up a pact of diverse nations into a union of peace and prosperity
- that people must forget their own national interests in the name of a greater peace.

On his 80th birthday, an aging Helmut Kohl announced that the fate of the EU’s floundering
single currency was a matter of life and death: He said, “European unification is a question of
war and peace .  .  . and the euro is part of our guarantee of peace.”

I am fascinated by the effect and history of the First World War. I have been to Verdun many
times, frequently leading parties of history enthusiasts to learn what happened there, and
why.

Who can forget the iconic image of Chancellor Helmut Kohl and French President, François
Mitterrand, at the battlefield of Verdun in September 2004, holding hands and saying 'Never
again.' The subtext being of course, that the EU is necessary to prevent war on the European
Continent. -- They forgot to mention that mature democracies rarely, if ever, fight each other.
They played on a peoples' honourable desire for peace to justify their drive towards the
political unification of European nations and the destruction of national democracies.

I would suggest that peace in Europe is a product of a number of different factors, firstly,
a sickness of war after the traumatic events of World War II, secondly, the possession of
nuclear weapons as a deterrant, and thirdly the presence of NATO. Free trade among
countries can also act as a deterrant against war, but political union is not necessary for free
trade.

Of course, now the EU is showing its true colours, EU Commission President Barroso a few
weeks ago called for a Common EU Defence and Foreign Policy

The claim that the EU was built up for the benefit of peace is a completely false foundation
myth.
If a study of the Former Republic of Yugoslavia shows us anything, it is that the un-natural
and undemocratic squeezing together of diverse peoples into a political union against their
will surely lead to resentment, anger and eventually, in the case of Yugoslavia, horrible
bloodshed.

The propagandists of the EU project have for decades played on and encouraged German
guilt about the War to build up sympathy and support for their political and bureaucratic
project. However, this attempt shall fail for a number of reasons.

Firstly, the number of young people who have never experienced the War is increasing all

the time.
And secondly - because over the last 60 years the world has grown to love the German
people again.

Germany needs to get over its World War guilt complex. The rest of the world has clearly
moved on, and forgiven any past wrongs. Look around and see how a young German, Lena
was voted Eurovision Song Contest winner, while the Catholic Church chose an erudite
German, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as Pope. A humorous Catholic might say that Germany
now has even the Holy Spirit on side!
It is this World War guilt complex which has emotionally squeezed many German politicians
to support and fund the political integration of the EU.
But the good thing is, the world has forgiven Germany, and the time for war reparations,
(paid as subvention of the EU) is over.

"The current situation is that the EU plays, Germany pays.
The German people should rightfully oppose forking out a huge amount of money to prop up
a failed currency.
Up to this point, the German people have been the mugs of Europe. They have paid for too
much.
Time to say to the weak economies of Europe, enough is enough, you have to look after
yourselves. Time to grow up and be responsible adults. 'You are fifty years of age, no more
pocket-money from Daddy.'

As it stands the ECB are buying up junk government bonds in the market place which will
undoubtedly lead to trouble.
Billionaire investor George Soros, who knows a thing or two about currencies, recently
said, "Due to its history, Germany is more worried about inflation than about recession. In
the rest of the world, it is exactly the other way around."1 Germany's interests are not served
by being in a monetary union with other countries who have completely different needs and
goals.
To prevent economic disaster, Germany needs to take back the Mark, and take back
control.

Chancellor Merkel has used the concept of 'beneficial crisis',2 and has used this situation of
financial crisis as an excuse to grab more power for Euro federalists. She and her fellow
travellers like Martin Schulz are cynically manipulating a situation to gain more of what they
want. The EU and the ill-conceived Euro project to a large extent created this crisis, yet
these manipulators now call for more Europe, more centralised EU control - more of the
same.
The German people need to protect themselves, their country and get rid of Eurofanatics like
Merkel and Schulz; as well as the euro.

1 The Economic Times 23 Jun, 2010,.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international-business/Germany-could-cause-euro-collapse-George-Soros/articleshow/
6082564.cms Quoting form Dei Zeit weekly.

"If the euro fails, not only the currency fails. Europe fails too, and the idea of European unification. We
have a common currency, but no common political and economic union. And this is exactly what we
must change. To achieve this -- therein lies the opportunity of this crisis."'

Concerning the Greek bailout, to protect their own future, and prevent their hard-earned
money being poured down a black hole of no return, the German people need to tell their
politicians, 'Not one penny more. If the Greeks need the money, let them call in the IMF
alone. We have paid enough already.'

The strong economies of northern Europe and the weak economies of the Med are
incompatible. You can't hold two watermelons in the same hand at once. It is a huge waste
of money trying to bail them out.

You should feel proud of your hard work which has built a strong German economy and
stable society. Yet why should the Germans pay billions of Euro to bail out the Meds,
and prop up the Euro, while being forced to cut their budget for German childcare and
education? The euro currency and political union is a crazy project. The Euro is a folly which
no longer serves the interests of the German people or indeed the other peoples of Europe.

To ensure the stability of European economies as a whole, either the weak Meds leave the
Euro, or the Germans leave the euro and take back the Deutsche mark. That is the only way
forward.

It is in everybody's interest that countries like Greece, Spain and Ireland leave the euro, take
up their own currency again and devalue. They need to be free to prosper. The alternative for
these countries is a deflationary spiral, allied to increasing debt levels and eventual default.

By 2013 the debt levels of Greece and Spain etc will be so huge, that they shall not be able
to repay. For Frau Merkel to give bucket loads of German taxpayers' money, created by
your hard work, to such countries in the name of 'an ever closer political union' which no-one
wants, is foolish, unjust and un-necessary.

This is compounded by the fact that the Germany people are now having to face massive
cuts in Government spending for vital services because the ruling politicians, committed to
this EU Project are sending your taxpayers' money abroad.

This economic crisis in Europe, facilitated in many ways by the Euro, will finally make people
question this whole project of political union. The Euro is unwanted just as political union is
unnecessary.

I am all in favour of democratically elected national government cooperating together, freely
agreeing minimum standards if that is what they want.
Cooperation and free-trade is great, but that is all we need. Political union however, cannot
and shall not work.

The EU is asking the German people to bail it out, when the EU accounts have not been
approved for 15 years. Given that the EU is a codeword for profligate waste and fraud, the
question to you is - Should you, the German people, trust your money to this organisation?
The EU, the institution of butter mountains and wine lakes is the last institution the German

But the question of the Euro brings us to a much deeper problem with the EU.
Whoever asked the German people their opinion about ditching the Deutsche mark
and having the Euro currency imposed instead? Can you remember being asked?
You the German people were never consulted about the Euro, nor have you been directly
consulted about a huge amount of laws which affect your daily lives.

Democracy of course cannot exist without the consent of a demos ( a people with a
shared language, history or culture. A demos necessitates at bare minimum of a shared
consciousness - a sense of 'we', a group with an identity and sense of belonging together.
One important litmus test for a demos, it that the people of this demos share a sense of
solidarity so that they are willing to help pay taxes and fund other members of the same
demos of a different area with lack of financial means.
Ask yourself; are the taxpayers of Germany willing to fund the payment of civil servants in
Athens, the wages of social workers in Sicily and the construction of motorways in Latvia?
Are the citizens of Germany happy that through the institutions of the EU, Ministers from
Bucharest, Budapest, and Bratislava are able to dictate the laws that are enacted through the
EU for the people of Germany? I think not.

Prompted by a question of Dr Roman Herzog, Former German President and former
president of the German Constitutional Court who asked about the extent of new German
laws which emanate from Brussels, the German Ministry of Justice compared the legal acts
adopted by the Federal Republic of Germany between 1998 and 2004 with those adopted by
the European Union during that period.
What was the result of this study? It found that an incredible 84 percent of new laws and
regulations came from Brussels while only 16 percent of the laws came originally from the
German Bundestag in Berlin. These figures are startling.
Dr Herzog himself said "the question has to be raised of whether Germany can still
unreservedly be called a parliamentary democracy.", 3 This is frightening - a real wake-up call
to all those who believe in democracy.
This indicates that the German people have lost democratic oversight of the laws which
govern their lives. This is very dangerous for democracy, a concept and practice which the
German people helped develop and protect. In the national elections - what does it really
matter which of the current parties you vote for when all of them are happy to allow the laws
to be dictated by people you did not elect in Brussels and of whom you cannot get rid of.

EU threatening parliamentary democracy, says ex-German president

Germany's state of parliamentary democracy is under threat from the European Union which is slowly taking away all the
national parliament's powers, the country's ex-president has said. In an article for newspaper Welt am Sonntag, Roman
Herzog pointed out that between 1999 and 2004, 84 percent of the legal acts in Germany stemmed from Brussels.

"EU policies suffer to an alarming degree from a lack of democracy and a de facto suspension of the separation of
powers." "By far the biggest part of the current laws in Germany are agreed by the council of ministers [member
states representation in Brussels] and not the German parliament," Mr Herzog wrote in a paper with Lüder Gerken,
director of the Freiburg-based Centre for European Policy. "And each regulation that the German government adopts
in the council of ministers, has to be transplanted by the Bundestag [parliament] into German law. " The article
continues by noting that Germany's own constitution foresees the parliament as the "central actor in the shaping
of the political community. "Therefore the question has to be raised of whether Germany can still unreservedly be
called a parliamentary democracy." http://euobserver.com/9/23250 http://www.welt.de/politik/article708734/
Roman_Herzog_Europaeische_Union_gefaehrdet_die_parlamentarische_Demokratie_in_Deutschland.html

It is shocking of course, that all laws passed in the EU are initiated by the unelected
Commissioners. You must be unelected in the EU to initiate the laws - this is frightening!
By handing over the power to decide on German laws, the eurofederalists have carried out
the equivalent of setting fire to the Reichstag. It is people who want national democracy who
are the good Europeans.

This task of restoring real power to national democracies is one which transcends national,
regional and political allegiances - it is higher than differences between the left and right.

To all the people who lived in Eastern Europe under Communism, you can hear no doubt
familiar echos with the bureaucratic nature of the EU.
The former Russian dissident, Vladimir Bukovsky is a personal friend of mine for many years.
He exposed the psychiatric imprisonment of political prisoners in the USSR, and fought for
freedom and human dignity under the Soviet system. He suffered greatly fighting the system
and was imprisoned. Mr Bukovsky draws chilling parallels between the system of Soviet
Russia and that which is emerging in the EU.

The question must be asked, if the German people did not consent to this hand over of
power to the Brussels elite, how did the unelected Bureaucrats of the EU get this power?
Quite simple, the bureaucrats of the EU stole it by lying, by bullying and by cheating the
people of Europe.
They lied about the effects of the Maastricht and Lisbon Treaties. They ignored the fair
referendum results in France, Holland and Ireland over the EU Constitution. Then they
changed the name and a bit of text in the EU Constitution, calling it the Lisbon Treaty, they
forgot to consult the people of France and Holland again. The bureaucratic elite of Brussels
then bullied the Irish, putting in a huge amount of money into the Yes campaign, all allied to a
subservient press.

The EU is an elitist political project without the direct consent of the peoples of Europe. You
will be amazed to know that over a thousand EU officials earn more than the British Prime
minister, and certainly much more than the MEPs. If you follow the money trail, you will find
that bureaucracy is more important than democracy in the EU. It is also becoming a case
of well-paid bureaucrats trying to justify their large pay packets by seeking more power.
They live in such a bubble in Brussels it can be quite comical. It was recently reported in the
European Voice newspaper that while the EU Commission officials were made a large public
relations exercise about banning the fishing and consumption of Atlantic Blue Fin tuna, in a
specially subsidised restaurant reserved for only Commission officials and their guests, they
were at the same time, stuffing their faces with the same Tuna. If the tuna is not delicious, at
least the hypocrisy is. These EU officials of course do not pay tax in Belgium, nor even VAT
on their cars.
I like the quip that the EU is a racket set up to transfer money from those who do not work
for EU institutions to those who do. It sums up the power and purpose of the EU officials very
well.

This now leads us to an unusual situation. Just when the EU has never had more power, it
has never been more unpopular.
The EU's own polling system Eurobarometer4 has shown a stark decline in levels of support
for the present regime of the EU. In the last six months there has been a huge decline of
the popularity of the EU system in Germany, in Greece, and in Portugal. In Britain, a recent
YouGov opinion poll (published on Sept 10th this year)5 has shown that a clear 47 % of the
British population want to leave the EU political union altogether. A mere 33 % of British
people think the EU is a good thing and wish to remain members in the current format.

Just look at the areas in which the EU has gained most power over the years. The Common
Fisheries policy has been an economic and ecological disaster. The Common Agricultural
policy an engine of inequity, the Common Commercial policy is helping to strangle business
opportunities. And now with a surge towards a Common Foreign Policy - the EU talks about
human rights but turns a turns a blind eye to abuse of basic human rights in China.

The EU has no respect for human rights. The EU made a fundamental mistake by allowing
the accession of countries like Romania and Bulgaria to join the European Union when it
knew of the high levels of corruption, and rampant discrimination against the large minorities
of Roma in these countries.
Those political elites who control the direction of the EU turned a blind eye because the
European Empire wants to expand and now the problem is not just in those countries - it is a
problem for all of us.

Barroso just recently called for a Common Defence policy. Where will it end?
Quite simply, this surge towards EU Political union will not end unless you in Germany,
the largest financial contributors to the EU, put a stop to it. I ask you to act to protect your
democracy, your incomes and your national interest.

You now have a very real opportunity and the power to take back democratic control.

In the UK, we in UKIP in 1993 started off very small, because a number of people were
unhappy about the possibility of losing the pound and entering the ERM. But in the last
European Parliament election in the UK we took 13 seats, beating the governing Labour
Party.
The tide of opinion is turning in Germany. You now have the momentum of public opinion
and events turning in your favour. Democrats in Germany now have a golden opportunity to
build a broad Pro-Democracy or Eurosceptic movement with credible candidates to present
to the German public in the next European elections.
If I may quote Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: "Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing
is not enough; we must do.”
This is a time of opportunity. I ask you to grab it and act on your noble desire of democracy
again.

Thank you very much for the invitation to come here, and thank you for listening.

ENDS