Letter From Europe: Giles Chichester Conservative MEP member of european parliament for South West England and Gibraltar: Conservative MEP for Devon and Cornwall, including Exeter and Plymouth

Giles Chichester Conservative MEP for South West England and Gibraltar

Giles Chichester MEP for South West England and Gibraltar. Click map to view member states

LETTER FROM EUROPE

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LETTER FROM EUROPE
February 2010

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GILES CHICHESTER CONSERVATIVE MEP
for the South West of England
and Gibraltar

Summer holiday in January
The Parliament resumed work in January a week later than usual which gave me the opportunity to make up for the summer holiday that my wife did not have last year owing to the sudden, unexpected death of a member of staff in August.

Sunshine and no snow
To cut a long story short about our debate over where to go we went to Gibraltar. This was not a constituency visit although it is, of course, within the region I represent. Despite gloomy predictions of rain the weather was better than I expected, more sun and blue skies than not! And, I confess, watching the news on television of a snowbound Britain rather enhanced the experience.

Candidate Commissioner Hearings
Back to work in week two I was plunged into the process of hearings for the candidate commissioners or as their prospective staff preferred to say, commissioners-designate. My committee – Industry, Research and Energy – was responsible for four commissioners’ portfolios; Research, Energy, the Digital Agenda and Industry. Five years ago as Chairman of the Committee I was closely involved in these

3 ½ hour sessions but this time, as co-ordinator of the fifth largest group, I had a much more back seat role.

Candidate casualties
Last time, as a result of the questioning we put, one of our four candidates was revealed as not knowing much, or enough shall we say, about his energy portfolio. As a consequence he had to be moved sideways to another directorate (his Member State evidently declined to replace him) and we had to hold a further hearing for an alternative energy commissioner who turned out to be pretty good at the job. I should say that two of the then candidate commissioners did have to be replaced by their Member States, showing that the Hearings were by no means a foregone conclusion.

Horse trading
This time just one casualty occurred, not one of our four although there were consequences for us. By way of background the Government of each Member State puts forward one candidate commissioner. Each is viewed as coming from the political family of the party in government and linked to the group in the parliament with MEPs from that party. If a candidate commissioner falls foul of the hearing process the group concerned may feel their man or woman has been picked on and look for a tit for tat reprisal. This time it was an EPP linked candidate so they were looking to give a candidate associated with whichever group they held responsible an equivalent hard time. And that turned out to be one of our four so I became involved in all the discussions and negotiations as co-ordinator. I played my part and the outcome was that the EPP had to back down. The EPP is the group we used to belong to so I know quite a few of them.

Energy Forum Debates
Another hat I wear is that of President of the European Energy Forum. We held two dinner debates in January, one on waste to energy or energy recovery from waste and the other on fuel cells and hydrogen. These are two alternative energy technologies which both hold out significant promise as low carbon diversified energy sources. A press letter I put out in advance was picked up by a consultant representing a British enterprise in this field who made contact with me and turned out to have worked for me long ago in the family business. Small world. The people she represents have some interesting technologies but I would need more space to explain so it must wait for another time. They have a cute name for one of them though – b9coal.com – benign get it? This is shorthand for underground coal gasification (UCG) combined with (CCS) carbon capture and storage.

Waste to Energy
I am currently our committee draughtsman for an opinion on the Commission Green Paper on managing bio-waste. In that context I was visited by a company based in the UK but not in the South West who manufacture a product called InSinkErator. This is another play on words because the product is a food waste disposer of the sort you would fit to your kitchen sink to liquefy food waste, i.e. a sort of wet incinerator. The point being that waste to energy plants turning sewage into biogas work much better with the high calorific value of the food waste.

Gloucester Airport
Back home I had two constituency visits of note. The first was to Gloucester Airport to get an update on my last visit years ago. They have established a niche market in general aviation which owes nothing to scheduled or charter flights and is all about training, private and commercial flying. They are on the threshold of a significant development to give them extra runway length and so increase their potential business. I wish them well.

Cornwall College Graduation
The other was to attend the Cornwall College graduation ceremony in Truro Cathedral. What an outstanding venue for such an event and an imaginative use of the Cathedral. I was struck by the range of courses in which qualifications were achieved, by the age range of graduates and, I have to say, by the predominance of females collecting degrees and other awards. The course on Lean Manufacturing and Processing caught my attention and is a credit to the South West manufacturing advisory service who promoted it. New technologies featured alongside courses on care, health and social work while there was even a course on complementary health therapies. It was great to see the pride all these young and not so young people displayed. Good luck to them all!

Promoted and Published by Giles Chichester MEP, Longridge, West Hill, Ottery St Mary, Devon EX11 1UX

Tel: 01404 851106 Fax 01404 850752 Email: giles@gileschichestermep.org.uk www.gileschichestermep.org.uk

Meetings with lobby and interest groups February 2010

Giovanni Campi, EUROCHAMBRES

Gerhard Huemer, UEAPME

Frederic Soudain, ESBA

Erik Sonntag, BusinessEurope

Katrin Sturm, Zentralverband des Deutschen Handwerks

Patrice Liauzu, European Investment Bank

Alan Keir, HSBC

Jacques-Emannuel Blanchet, HSBC

Huw Morgan, HSBC

Tricia Weener, HSBC

Simon Jowers, HSBC

· Beddoes Chris, Europia

· Blumereau Jehan-Eric, TOTAL

· Coupaye Noël, GDF SUEZ

· Gonsolin Florie, Europia

· Gorbachevskyi Igor, Naftogas of Ukraine

· Hall Richard, OGP

· Jungk Gunnar, BP Europe

· Kalkavoura Anastasia, Hellenic Petroleum

· Korteweg Hans, FORATOM

· Lauber Matthias, RWE

· Linker Jennifer, ExxonMobil Petroleum

· Marchetti Fabio, ENI Spa

· Mathuren Alain, Europia

· Muslin Hervé, Europia

· Perraudin Jean-Claude, CEA

· Picamal Berta, FORATOM

· Poplineau Clothilde, GDF SUEZ

· Reveau de Cyrieres Thierry, TOTAL

· Tanas Alessia, ENI Spa

· Moussy-Liéval Annie, Ministère Economie Industrie et Emploi FR

· Ramanauskaite Aiste, Council of Europe

· Russell Susan, Chevron

· Charrault Jean-Claude, EEF

· Michiels Maud, EEF

· Verheust Pascale, EEF

· Gill Campbell. MP

· Karin Metzlaff, EPSO

· Patrick Gibbles, FSB

· Alex MacHutchon, Wrigley

· Ulrich Adam Ulrich Adam

· David Doyle, Brunswick Group

Alex Baxter, BBC Points West

Angela Brennan, Archant South West

Bob Constantine, ITV West

Steve Grant,Western Morning News

Sam Holliday, Bath Chronicle, Somerset Standard and Somerset Guardian, Bath News & Media

Kate Ironside, Western Morning News

Claire Marshall, Gloucestershire Gazette Series, Wilts & Glos Standard Series

Mike Norton, Bristol Evening Post

Ian Onions, Bristol Evening Post

Sue Smith, Stroud News & Journal

Jacqui Walls, The Cornishman

John Penny, Aggregate Industries UK Ltd

Angela Yeoman, Aggregate Industries UK Ltd

Andy Shakeshaft, Aggregate Industries UK Ltd