There are fewer Euro-crats in Brussels than employees of Oxfordshire County Council

12.40.34pm GMT Thu 17th Dec 2009

Liberal Democrat members of the European Parliament (pictured here) punch well above their weight

Lib Dem Euro-MP Catherine Bearder has set up a part of her website designed to explode the many myths made up by opponents of Britain's place in Europe, and gleefully repeated by much of the British media. You can visit Catherine's Euro-myth pages here: http://www.bearder.eu/pages/Euromyths.html

A recent myth appearing in the papers and quoted widely, is the idea that MEPs have just awarded themselves a £20,000 pay rise. This is not true. The system of MEPs' salaries changed in 2009. Previously they were paid the same as MPs in their respective national parliaments. This led to huge disparities: in 2007, a Bulgarian MEP would have earned the equivalent of £6,400 a year but an Italian MEP would have earned £92,661 a year for doing the same job.. A uniform salary was organised so that all MEPs would earn the same. When this was agreed it meant British MEPs would have their pay cut and earn less than MPs at Westminster. However, because they are now paid in Euros, when the Pound collapsed during the financial crisis it meant MEPs received more when they turned their Euros into Pounds.

Then there is the idea that the European Institutions are swarming with bureaucrats with their snouts in the trough, paid for by the British taxpayer. In fact the total staff of the European Commission is around 17,000 including over 1,800 translators and interpreters, and more than 9,000 secretarial and support staff. This compares to around 20,000 people employed by Oxfordshire County Council or Bristol City Council, and around 52,000 at Birmingham City Council.

During the recent elections for the European Parliament, UKIP stated repeatedly that Britain paid something like £40 million a day, or £14 billion a year, to be a member of the European Union. This is also not true. It is correct to say Britain is a net contributor, but we receive a rebate from the EU (i.e. we get a discount on our contributions) and we receive extra money from the EU to help with our public spending. In 2008 we received a rebate of £4.9 billion and an additional £4.5 billion in extra funding. This meant our total net-payment to the EU was only £3.3 billion. Total UK public spending in that year was £631 billion, so our net contribution to the EU was only 0.5% of our total public spending.

It is often said that British farmers lose out in Europe and would be better off if we left. Ben Gill, former President of the NFU (National Farmers' Union) has said: "Membership of the EU is vital to the interests of British farmers. Over three-quarters of our agricultural commodity exports go to the EU and this share is only likely to grow with the further enlargement of the EU. Looking ahead, the signs are that the whole of the food chain will become increasingly integrated on a European scale. Our future as part of a competitive food industry depends on continuing membership of the Union."

The Liberal Democrats believe Britain should be at the heart of the European Union, because it is in Britain's best interest. And our Lib Dem MEPs, Catherine Bearder and Sharon Bowles, are determined to defend Britain's interests in Brussels and Strasbourg. The attitude of our Labour and Conservative Parties, standing on the sidelines and sniping at the Union for the sake of a few headlines back home, have not helped our country.