Bureaucrats not to ‘blame’ for bulbs (From York Press)

Bureaucrats not to ‘blame’ for bulbs

11:26am Tuesday 4th September 2012 in Letters By Reader's letter

IT WAS interesting to see Godfrey Bloom’s tirade against unelected bureaucrats in Brussels (The Press, August 31).

Most incandescent light bulbs have already been phased out in a process that started in 2009. For all the scaremongering, the switchover has been smooth. It is estimated that low-energy bulbs save the UK about £108 million a year, as well as reducing carbon emissions.

I wonder who Bloom is referring to when he talks of unelected bureaucrats. In 2008, elected EU energy ministers, including the British energy minister, invited the Commission to draft a proposal to phase out incandescent bulbs; so the legislation was drawn up at the request of elected ministers.

In February 2009, the European Parliament’s Eco-design Regulatory Committee voted 44 to 14 in favour of phasing out incandescent bulbs; again, the members of that committee are all elected MEPs.

The votewatch.eu website shows that since the beginning of this year, Mr Bloom has voted on 49 of the 193 occasions MEPs have had, in the European Parliament, to influence how our continent is run. The rest of the time he either didn’t vote (59 occasions) or was absent (85 occasions).

Christian Vassie Blake Court, Wheldrake, York.