Speaker: Nigel Farage MEP, UKIP, European Parliament, Strasbourg-15 December 2010
Thank you.
2010 will be remembered as the year when the deep flaws of the euro were exposed and when the public woke up to the sheer stupidity of their leaders.
And so here we have another summit, another crisis, confidence in the euro ebbing by the week - it's like watching a slow-motion car crash. And now you want a permanent bailout mechanism. You think that if you have a fund of, say, a billion euros, all will be well.
Well, it won't be well. The failure of the euro is nothing to do with speculation. It's nothing to do with the markets, be they currency or bonds. It's because the north and the south in Europe cannot today or at any point be put together in a single monetary union - it won't work.
And politically, of course, you have to change the treaty. The reason being that the four German professors will win at Karlsruhe [German Constitutional court] and prove that the bailouts you put in place already were in fact illegal under the treaties.
Well in many ways I welcome this treaty change. Because it will mean that there has to be a referendum in Ireland, and you never know, David Cameron might even keep his promise and hold a referendum in the United Kingdom. And I'm sure as democrats you would all welcome a referendum on the EU in the United Kingdom.
We could also reflect, at the end of 2010, not just on the state of the Union, but on the state of Belgium. For six months, the Belgian presidency in office have sat here telling us we must integrate more deeply.
What a farce this is. You haven't had a government in your own country since June. Here we have a non-nation trying to abolish our nation - it truly is an absolute farce. But nobody here dares to admit it, because you are all in denial.
Belgium is a microcosm from the entire European Union. Belgium is about to fall to bits and the rest will follow.
Happy Christmas everybody.
Article about four men: http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,703613,00.html