MEP says Red Ensign threat is "another straight banana story"

12.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Tue 6th Dec 2005

Lib Dem MEP Graham Watson has pointed out that the alleged threat to the UK's Red Ensign is another Brussels scare story peddled by anti-EU Conservatives and their friends in the UKIP.

"The Commission's proposal aims to make sure that EU Member States comply with their IMO (International Maritime Organisation) obligations", Graham Watson said today in a letter to constituents.

"The proposal makes it quite clear that Member States which do so will not be subject to any new legislation". In a Union which stretches as far as Malta and Cyprus and will soon include Bulgaria and Romania, it is right that the EU institutions take maritime safety seriously.

"Tory MEPs are so obsessed with the national sovereignty they crave that they ignore the global anarchy it spawns", the MEP added.