Daniel Hannan, aBritish Member of the European Parliament, issued a strong warning to conservative Americans worried about their country’s future in a speech he delivered at the CPAC rally last week in Washington.

The self-proclaimed Euroskeptic and author of The New Road to Serfdom,warned U.S. political conservatives not to follow in Europe’s tragic footsteps by allowing their governments to seize too much power and create dependency on mismanaged socialized government programs — the very Welfare State culture that has a strangle hold on the Old Continent’s major economies such as Britain, France, Germany and Italy.

In Hannan’s opinion, Europe is “in the grip of a prolonged winter … of discontent” where there are nation-wide protests and grumbling every day againstpoliticaland economic liberalization — but with little hope for actualchange. Europe is in such a dire state, he says, because it is has long lost its culture of enterprise and self-responsibility.

Hannan said he always admired Americans for their optimism and “anything’s possible” attitude, but they need to make sure their “rulers remember they are not rulers but representatives.” He humorously noted that in Belgium, where he works in European Parliament, the country was without agovernmentfor nearly two years “and it was working brilliantly!”

Below you can watch Hannan’s interview and full speech delivered at CPAC.