8. valgperiode Tim AKER

. – I abstained on this legislative report. Whilst I fully support – and want – visa-free access to the EU for UK nationals after we withdraw from the EU, alterations to the text by the European Council made this report impossible to support. The reason is that, without a mandate from Parliament, the Council added text to state that Gibraltar is a ʻcolonyʼ of the British Crown. This is not only factually incorrect, as Gibraltar is designated as a British Overseas Territory, but is also highly insulting to its people, who have, in two referendums, overwhelmingly voted to remain British. I also strongly objected to the procedures employed by the institutions to instigate this change, which included unjustly removing a British rapporteur from the report and refusing to allow a full debate or amendments to be tabled. For these reasons, and whilst I would have liked to support the report, I abstained.

. – I voted against this legislation. Employment policies should be left entirely to the Member States. There is no need for EU involvement and this is a gross violation of the internal policies of the Member States.

. – I voted against this report as it is part of the mobility package. The mobility package has been rushed through committee and is in no way ready, and should not have been presented to Plenary.

. – I voted against this report as it is part of the mobility package. The mobility package has been rushed through committee, and is in no way ready and should not have been presented to Plenary.

. – I voted against this report as it was looking to harmonise the road transport sector. Issues from Member State to Member State differ and a one—size—fits—all philosophy just will not work.

. – I voted against this legislative report as I am against further EU harmonisation and against giving more power to the Commission in the energy field.

. – I oppose this legislation because it funds the destructive EU common fisheries policy into the next decade.

. – I oppose this legislation because it carries forward the damaging, destructive EU common fisheries policy.

. – I voted against this legislative report. Whilst I support in principle the idea of strengthening the security of identity documents to protect them from counterfeiting, I oppose the EU’s harmonisation of these documents. Furthermore, I also believe that Member States should have the right to choose both whether to include a person’s gender on these documents and how this appears on the document. For these reasons, I voted against.

. – I voted against this report because the EU is looking to harmonise such things as road signs and road markings. There is no definition as to what will be the accepted norm and the UK has the best road marking and sign posts in Europe and in no way would it be acceptable to lower our standards.

. – This is more harmonisation of the single market, this time in respect of authorisation, manufacture, distribution and supervision of pan-European personal pension products (PEPPs). Accordingly I voted against.

. – I voted against this legislation. Balance of work and family life, especially the division of time of work to raise children, is a decision to be made primarily by the family themselves. The EU should not attempt to influence or interfere in either the private affairs of families or the internal policies of the Member States. Any legislation made in this area should be done so by the democratically elected governments and should be light-touch.

. – I voted against this legislative report closing the first reading. The report itself is an attempt to give the unelected Commission powers to cut EU funding to EU Member States it disagrees with politically. The rules within the legislation make any such measures be on the basis of a Council decision following a proposal from the Commission. The decision shall be automatically approved, unless the Council decides by QMV to reject the Commission proposal within one month of its adoption by the Commission. This is clearly the EU looking to further punish countries that it deems have broken their ‘rule of law’ principles, such as Poland and Hungary.

. – I voted against this legislation. The European Social Fund Plus brings together various different funds that are ineffective and a waste of taxpayers’ money. There is no reason to believe this will change under the new legislation.

. – This assists in the cross-border transport of goods and so may assist avoiding a hard border in Northern Ireland. Accordingly, I abstained.

. – I fully agree with all parts of the report that state the importance of transparency and right to access to information. However, I have voted against this legislative report as it asks for more EU integration and harmonisation.

. – I oppose this legislation as, once again, the EU is acting like a state when it is no such thing.

. – I voted against this report because the EU is looking to harmonise training, however the report does not go far enough to distinguish between those who work on trawlers and those who work on ferries.

. – I have voted in favour of this first reading of the legislative report. I believe that reducing pre-financing will reduce bureaucracy and increase transparency. For this reason, I have also voted against the rejection amendment.

. – I have voted against this closure of the legislative report. Whilst the proposal from the Commission on this issue was fair and reasonable, the report was drastically altered and weakened by the Parliament. I therefore voted against the closure of first reading to allow for further amendments to be tabled to this report.