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		Letter to the Editor Lincolnshire Echo - Friday, 16 May 2003 Dear Sir, The East Midlands Regional Assembly (EMRA) is funded by the tax-payer, and publishes a magazine "England's East Midlands". The Spring edition contained an article by EMRA's Communications Manager Simon Brian (who is paid by the tax-payer). In it, he says that those who regard the government's regionalization programme as part of a Brussels plan to create a Europe of regions, and to side line national governments, are "scaremongers and mischief-makers". As it happens, I sit on the European parliament's Regional Affairs Committee, and I can affirm that the EU is indeed keen to develop a Europe of regions. It is promoting the so-called "Committee of the Regions" (paid for by the tax-payer). It is promoting strong links between Brussels and the regions, bypassing national governments. Readers may like to know that the East Midlands maintains an expensive office in Brussels (funded by the tax-payer), although EMRA and the Local Government Association are having great difficulty defining a role for this office. Much of its original information-gathering function has been overtaken by the internet. Different people have different views, but there is a strong case that regionalisation is driven by the EU. It is entirely wrong for a public official to use a publicly-funded magazine to promote a highly contentious cause, and more so that he uses such inflammatory terms. I have written to EMDA and EMRA demanding that Mr Brian should retract his comments and apologise, and that he should be warned against future political meddling. Yours sincerely, Roger Helmer MEP