Is Europe good for Yorkshire?

Yes... says David Bowe, Labour MEP for Yorkshire and Humberside

What does Europe do for me and why should I bother voting in the elections to the European Parliament?

Those are the questions which I am sure many across Yorkshire are asking themselves as the ballot papers start to drop through the door.

I should like to provide some facts and figures which I believe demonstrate why it's so important the UK plays its part as a leading member of the European community - and why you should exercise your vote.

Our membership of the European Union has brought huge benefits to our region in employment, health, environment and many other aspects of our lives.

Take employment. EU legislation means that over a quarter of a million workers in North Yorkshire cannot be compelled to work for longer than 48 hours and they are entitled to regular rest breaks, one day off every week and four weeks annual paid holiday.

Part-time workers (mainly women) now have the same rights as full-time workers on pay, pension schemes, parental and maternity leave and sick pay. As well as benefiting from enhanced workers' rights, working women now have the right to 26 weeks' maternity leave and cannot be required to work nights if they are pregnant.

European law also provides protection from discrimination on the grounds of racial or ethnic origin, sexual orientation, religion or belief and disability. This means that the 17,621 people belonging to a minority group in North Yorkshire are assured of a fair deal in employment, education, social security and health care.

The European Parliament has also voted through strict new laws against animal testing for cosmetics, and it remains at the forefront of protection of animal rights. The benefits to North Yorkshire are also financial.

Yorkshire has received more money from the Common Agricultural Policy than any other county in England, and regional funds have supported hundreds of vital projects.

For example, a recent grant of £60,000 by the European Regional Development Fund means that the Hillside Out Of School Club in Borrowby, North Yorkshire now has a permanent home.

This grant, along with other awards and the efforts of fundraisers, has enabled the group to buy a mobile classroom.

Yorkshire Forward has obtained more than £4 million of funding to support 13 separate initiatives supporting business development in North Yorkshire which are now in place and will continue until the end of next year.

In May we will welcome ten new countries into the European Union, giving us a wonderful chance to share even more cultural and educational experiences. The enlargement will also open up new areas of trade, helping businesses in North Yorkshire to compete in new markets and create new jobs.

Already, our links in Europe have provided enormous benefits throughout Yorkshire and the Humber:

315,000 jobs

Inward investment off £11.1 billion during the last ten years

360 companies from other EU member states operating in the region, creating 40,000 jobs

£1.2 billion investment through European Structural Funds

30 per cent of small and medium-sized enterprises with trading links in other EU states

These are just some of the reasons why you should make sure your voice is heard along with the millions of other people at the election on June 10.

No!... says STEPHEN FEASTER, of UKIP

DEFINITELY not! Our membership of the European Union has been a disaster. Our once flourishing fishing industry has been totally destroyed. The European Union's Common Agricultural Policy has driven our farmers to despair while the average family pays about £20 a week extra for their food.

The burden of bureaucracy, combined with poor reward for their labours, has been too much to cope with.

Farming is a way of life, not a job.

Our beautiful countryside that we love to live, work and holiday in depends on farmers, but bureaucrats in Brussels have no concept of this.

GM crops, quite rightly, provoke much anger and debate, but the decision to grow or ban them should be taken by ourselves, not dictated by the EU.

We are continually told that millions of British jobs depend on our EU membership, but this is a fallacy, because unemployment in Germany and France is already nearly ten per cent, double ours.

Does anybody really think they would want to stop selling their goods to us?

Half of our exports go to the rest of the world, but as we are sucked further into the inward-looking EU our manufacturing industry is starting to suffer the same fate as our farming and fishing. Jobs and businesses are being exported to the rising economies of the world such as China.

Small businesses are stifled in their attempts to grow.

Who has time to read, never mind cope with, the mountain of red tape that spews out of Brussels: employment legislation, working time directives, discrimination laws, VAT rules, etc?

We are continually told that our region benefits from "European Union funding".

What a con. We only get back £1 for every £2 the EU takes off us.

Our Government then has to add another £1 to get the so called "funding", so every time you see something "funded by the EU" for every £1 it has received it has actually cost you and me, the tax payer, £3.

The cost of our membership of the EU is horrendous.

Everybody grumbles about the cost of the Millennium Dome, but the EU demands from us the equivalent of 17 domes a year, every year.

Just think of the benefits our region could derive from a share of this vast amount of money. The other big myth promoted by EU fanatics is that it has kept the peace in Europe, rubbish! NATO has kept the peace.

The biggest danger facing not only Yorkshire but the whole of Britain from our membership of the EU is the demise of democracy that millions fought and died for.

More than 70 per cent of our laws now come from the EU and no matter how many of us dislike them we can't stop them.

Our so-called "leaders" have agreed that EU law takes precedent.

Why would anybody wish to sacrifice the ability to remove, via the ballot box, the people who decide the laws we have to live by?

Stephen Feaster is the chairman of the UK Independence Party's Ryedale branch

Updated: 09:36 Wednesday, June 02, 2004