European Parliament
Anthea McIntyre  (ECR ).
– Mr President, we must support entrepreneurship and SMEs and we must improve the functioning of the single market. Above all, we must cut red tape if we want to create jobs and increase growth.
I would like to speak briefly on Ms Cornelissen’s report which, unfortunately, I and fellow UK Conservatives cannot support in its entirety. This year – 2012 – should be the year we focus on the Member States’ implementation of the EU 2020 strategy, and surely it is counterproductive for us to pre-empt Member States’ progress and to make presumptions of failure. Also, we cannot support calls for a financial transaction tax or for EU funding in areas where Member States have already decided to make cuts, because these go against subsidiarity.

