Martin Callanan MEP was speaking to BBC1’s Politics Show. He urged the Coalition to take a more “robust” view on “legally dubious” bailouts. He said we weren’t helping already indebted countries by imposing high interest loans on them. He said it was “wrong” for taxpayers to bear all of the burden without banks writing off […]
Martin Callanan is Leader of the Conservative MEPs. This really isn’t a good time to be a federalist in the European Union. Ask a typical Euro-enthusiast what the main achievements of the EU are, they will tell you: the single market, the Euro, and the border-free Schengen zone. The first of these – the single market […]
As Tim promised a few weeks ago, I intend to provide ConHome readers with a regular update on the activities of your Conservative MEPs and some of the highlights of the parliament's activities over recent weeks. PortugalThe Portuguese crisis and the EU's response to it have dominated the agenda in recent weeks. The Eurozone crisis […]
Martin Callanan is Leader of the Conservative MEPs. Last November, Britain played a disproportionate part in the Irish bailout. Of the €67.5 billion of external support, we contributed in three ways: through our membership of the IMF, through the EU's European Financial Stabilisation Mechanism (EFSM) and through a €3.8 billion bilateral loan. We did this […]
By Jonathan Isaby As anticipated by me last night and Alex Deane this morning, the European Court of Justice has indeed now ruled that insurance companies charging different premiums for men and women are in contravention of Article 8 of the EU Treaty – meaning that younger women will no longer be able to get […]
Next week in Strasbourg three Conservative MEPs will stand for the leadership of the delegation of Conservative MEPs. ConservativeHome asked each of them to briefly set out their stall… Richard Ashworth has been an MEP for South East England since 2004 and deputy leader of the Conservative MEPs since 2009. Proportional representation (PR) and the […]
Martin Callanan is MEP for North East England and Chief Whip of the ECR group. Reading ConservativeHome over the past few days, it has been very reassuring to see that our Conservative Members of Parliament are taking such a keen interest in keeping the EU's budget for 2011 at least frozen at 2010 levels, or […]
Martin Callanan, MEP for the North East, has written elsewhere on ConservativeHome about the Working Time Directive today. His colleague Philip Bushill-Matthews, Conservative employment spokesman in the European Parliament, has issued a press release. Labour MEPs oppose the UK’s opt-out from the Directive. On Wednesday MEPs will vote on whether to scrap the opt-out. Doing […]
Martin Callanan is Conservative MEP for North East England. Many thousands of people who had jobs at the start of 2008 will be facing up to the prospect of being without work in 2009. In a time of serious and deepening recession we should be doing all we can to help those who want to […]
Conservatives in the European Parliament have indicated their pleasure with a deal MEPs struck with the Council of Ministers on CO2 emissions from cars. Legislation that will go before the European Parliament this month will now require carmakers to reduce emissions to 130g per KM between 2012 and 2015. The original proposal was that it […]
Martin Callanan, MEP for the North East, wonders what it is that we have in common with Nicholas Sarkozy. In the most recent article I wrote for ConservativeHome, I began the piece by stating, "Conservatives tend to be free marketeers – or at least British Conservatives do." It was, of course, intended as a bit […]
Martin Callanan, Conservative MEP for the North East, describes the ongoing stupidity of some of the EU’s agricultural subsidies. Conservatives tend to be free marketeers – or at least British Conservatives do. We champion competition and argue the case for reform, especially in the European Union. But when it comes to agriculture, our party has […]
Martin Callanan is a Conservative MEP for the North East. There is a certain irony to the fact that on the same day that ConservativeHome revealed that we at the party conference are to be treated to a video link with French presidential hopeful Nicolas Sarkozy, the man himself was in Spain calling for the […]
Martin Callanan is Leader of the Conservative MEPs. Elections in Finland do not normally make headlines anywhere outside Finland. But last weekend's extraordinary events, with the shock success of Timo Soini's True Finns, have had a devastating effect in Brussels, where Eurosceptism has long been seen as irritating, but manageable, as long as it can […]