eurealist.co.uk

Doing a bit of Surfing based on my own draft folder in which I put links that to posts and article and sites which grab my interest, I came across this letter on the Labour Movement for Europe Site

Written by an Administrator and subsequently locked to prevent any chance that someone might possibly inject a measure of inconvenient truth on the subject of the EU and the Regions, the letter is a lazy attempt to confine the claim that the EU is involved in the creations of the Regions to the Eumyth bin.

Over the last few years, there has been significant confusion surrounding the emergence of regions within the United Kingdom. You often read letters claiming that these regions are part of some sinister EU plot to wipe England off the map.

The reality is somewhat different.

The regions to have been developed by successive British governments, originating with the economic planning regions of the 1960s. They are entirely an internal matter for Britain.

The European Union merely recognises Britain ’s own internal structures, as it does for every member country.

Whether we have such regions or not, how we define their boundaries, whether they should have elected assemblies or not, and whether they should be used as police authority boundaries or not - all these are entirely matters for Britain to decide.

Anti-European campaigners want to conjure up an image of Brussels wanting to break up Britain, but the UK’s regions have nothing whatsoever to do the European Union. That is just another euromyth.

This is quite clearly a load of crap;

I culled this from Bryan Smalley`s The Regionalisation of Britain - a diary account http://www.regionalassemblies.co.uk/3239.html

1965 - The EU published its first Memo on Regionalisation confirming that it is EU Policy.

1972 – Heath took Britain into the EU (EEC) he arranged that money which was returned to us from Brussels should come via the regions

1973 - Regional Development Fund established. Heath instituted Local Government re-organisation with a view to moving local government towards regionalisation.

1986 - Single European Act was passed ‘Regionalisation became the central policy of the EU’.

1992 - The Treaty on European Union (the Maastricht Treaty) established the Committee of the regions with its Headquarters in Brussels.

1992 - The European Commission published a map - ‘The European Community - a Community with no internal frontiers’. The map showed Great Britain which included Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales and nine other regions. There was no mention of England.

1995 - Following a review of the local government structure 46 Unitary authorities were established between 1995 and 1998. Evidence shown later in this paper proves that this was part of the regionalisation plan.

1997 - Labour Government took office. It quickly introduced devolution (i.e. Regionalisation) in Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales & London leaving 8 remaining regions in England

1998 - the Labour Government launched ‘the Democratic Renewable Debate’ and in the same year the Regional Development Agencies Act was passed allowing the establishment of Regional Development Agencies. RDAs co-ordinate Land use, Transport, Economic development, Agriculture, Energy & Waste. All RDAs have Brussels offices. Each region will ultimately have two sections of government: an elected assembly and a development agency.

1999 - Regional Assemblies were established - Members are ’stakeholders’ and councillors from local authorities. Representatives are appointed (i.e. not elected).

2001 - Committee of the Regions published its latest paper on Regionalisation entitled ‘Major Steps towards a Europe of the Regions and Cities in an Integrated Continent’.

2001- Government issued a Planning Green Paper. It removes County Councils from the planning process.

15th November 2001, the DTLR Minister Lord Falconer stated in the House of Lords that ‘three tiers of Government are too many’ and the government is ‘looking at county and district councils’

May 2002 the Government introduced its White Paper: ‘Your Region, Your Choice - Revitalising the English Regions’.

3rd Dec 2003. In answering a questions in House of Commons Nick Raynsford MP said: ‘Where an elected regional assembly is established, existing two tier local government will be restructured as unitary authorities. It is now quite clear that County and District/Borough Councils will be replaced with Unitary Authorities and Regions

Also in 2003 the District Auditor upheld complaints that the North East Assembly was misusing funds by paying for the publication of propaganda promoting an elected assembly. This breached the Local Government Act.

1965 First Commission Communication on Regional Policy. The Commission emphasised that its authority on regions came from the treaty of Rome and said every country must draw up regional economic policies.

In 1969 in a second more substantial statement, the Commission said that all economic and social policy had to be determined at the European level or the region but NOT by nation states…and I quote ‘if member states were to remain responsible for regional policy then development of the Community would be jeopardised’.

The EEC began to give grants on a regional basis ensuring that the member countries would have to change their systems of local government in order to receive the grants Brussels.

Article 198 of the Maastricht treaty (http://europa.eu.int/en/record/mt/title2.html) provided the basis of the EU’s regionalisation policy. It introduced the Committee of the Regions and specified how representatives from each region across the EU would sit on that committee.

it was by making funding region based that the EU forced John Major to set up the first regional bodies). Regulation 1260/1999 ‘Structural Funds’ ) details this process.

Direct control will come through Regulations aimed directly at the Regions. The EU parliamentary report illustrates how the EU will exercise direct control of the regions.

Regionalism - An alternative strategy for Europe?

For the European Union to continue seriously upon a path of ever closer integration, and the plans for a single currency are surely an integral element of that strategy, it must also have a long-term coherent plan for the development of relevant political structures. The policy of widening membership of the EU makes the necessity of closer political ties more desirable if we are to avoid political stagnation. What is required is an overall strategy for constitutional and political reforms that more accurately reflect the needs and wishes of its citizens. Short term national interests will by their nature, occasionally conflict with the long term advancement of the integration process in Europe. A gradual but deliberate reduction in the emphasis placed upon the political power and influence of Nation States will allow a more objective long-term strategy of wider European advancement to succeed.