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		MEP backs calls to scrap EU Employment Directorate Thursday, 2nd February 2012 Local MEP Roger Helmer today backed calls by Conservative Martin Callanan, Chairman of the Conservative Group in the European parliament, to scrap the the Employment and Social Affairs directorate in the European Commission, saying that employment directives were acting as barriers to jobs. He also criticised the EU's proposed Fiscal Treaty, recently vetoed by the Prime Minister. In his speech in Brussels, Callanan said: "As a fiscal conservative, I should of course be delighted that we are enshrining fiscal discipline and balanced budgets within national laws and constitutions. However, as a Democrat, what greatly concerns me is that an electorate's ability to vote for a high spending Keynesian economic policy is effectively being removed from them. We are making Socialism illegal! This pact is effectively rendering all elections null and void across much of Europe. "There is one action that we could take right here, right now to show businesses our commitment to growth. Surely one of the best ways for the EU to speed up growth is to scrap the Employment and Social Affairs directorate in the commission, and repatriate its responsibilities to national governments. Then we could scrap the Working Time Directive, the Agency Workers' Directive, the Pregnant Workers' Directive and the other barriers to actually employing people. "We can't create jobs by talking about them, or passing resolutions. In fact, we - we Eurocrats and MEPs - can't create jobs at all. What we can do is get out of the way and allow entrepreneurs to invent things, make things, sell things. That's where employment growth comes from. And that's where social security comes from too." Commenting on Mr. Callanan's speech, Mr Helmer added: "I guess if the Employment directorate were scrapped, that would be the end of my job on the Unemployment committee. And a very good thing too. The European Parliament's Unemployment committee, despite my best efforts, does far more harm than good".