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Goodbye to an old friend
For the April Strasbourg session of the European
Parliament I had a double ration of travel because I had to return to
Devon for the funeral of my wife’s brother-in-law in mid week. About my
age and someone who led a vigorous healthy happy outdoor life, Chris was
cut short cruelly by cancer.
Wednesday votes
So I missed the votes on Tuesday and got back to
Strasbourg in time for Wednesday votes on an issue of importance to how
MEPs work, the calendar of sessions for 2006, and the report on the
accession treaties for Bulgaria and Romania.
Calendar for 2006
The calendar of meetings is important in itself in
determining when we have to be in Strasbourg and therefore when we have
group weeks preceding sessions. It also determines where committee
weeks fall which is critical because that is when the real work of the
Parliament takes place. It influences decisions about where
constituency weeks fall, when there are no formal meetings in Brussels
but we have the option to use the time to work there, go on delegation
visits within the EU or outside or to spend the day in our constituency
or region. Finally it decides when we are in recess, usually six weeks
in July – August and two weeks over Christmas – New Year.
Annual protest
But the vote on the calendar is also the
moment where we go through our yearly ritual of protest against the fact
of being obliged to meet in Strasbourg for twelve full sessions a year
despite the fact that we do all our work in Brussels where both the
Council and Commission are based. Some years back we voted to abolish
one session (absurdly we have two in one month to meet the dozen
required) but the French Government took the Parliament to court and the
European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled that the Treaty as amended
at Maastricht said twelve so twelve there must be. |
Poking fun at the French!
Some bright sparks put up an amendment deleting
Mondays and Thursdays as part of a session (we have for some years
deleted Fridays as a symbolic protest) but everyone was advised the
amendments were inadmissible under the Treaty and we were whipped to
vote against in any case. One very bright spark, Robert Goebbels from
Luxembourg, rose to move an oral amendment to the effect that he wished
to include Tuesdays and Wednesdays in the amendment. Amid much laughter
this was ruled inadmissible also by the rather dour and colourless
Spanish socialist President (Speaker) of the Parliament.
Accession treaties
The votes on Bulgaria and Romania provoked a rash
of points of order and motions for a referral back to committee. It
seems the French and Germans have taken fright about further enlargement
(not least with Turkey looming over the horizon) and its implications
for threatened mass migrations from new to old member states and
consequent effects upon the cosy protectionism known as the social
model. In the background lurk the impending referenda on the draft
Constitution for Europe in France, the Netherlands and elsewhere.
For Bulgaria and Romania
Eventually votes were taken and a large majority of
us, including me and fellow Conservatives, said yes.
SENSE
Back home at
the end of the week I visited a home in Exeter for deaf blind people run
by the charity SENSE. Just think about it for a moment, living in a
world of your own with minimal contact or knowledge of the world we take
for granted. True, they are looked after by an heroic band of care
workers, but it brought to mind my mothers urgings to count your
blessings. Good advice. |
COMMENT
Constitution for Europe in doubt
If what we hear from France and, increasingly,
from the Netherlands is true, this draft Constitution for Europe may
be stopped in its tracks at the end of May, The No vote shows
strongly in opinion polls and judging by the rising aura of anxiety
emanating from French Yes MEPs, the Noes may well have it. I hope
so.
Teflon Tony off the hook again?
In one sense this is a pity in that it will
remove in all probability the need for a referendum at home on the
subject. Mr Chirac’s bad luck in that one of the reasons people may
vote no in France is to register their dislike of him and wish to be
rid of him may be as much Tony ‘Teflon’ Blair’s good luck in being
able to avoid such ignominy.
Dislike and disapproval
I remain astonished at how much Blair and his New
Labour Government are able to get way with. The one thing you need in
politics above all else is luck and he has seemed to possess it in
buckets. If we believe the press and media the country is
sleepwalking towards another term of Blair government despite quite
strongly disliking him and disapproving of his government.
Are you thinking what we’re thinking?
Has anyone done an opinion poll of all the
editorial staff in the media and the press, I wonder? Because, as
ever, they seem to be driving the agenda and deciding the issues.
However, I like nothing better than when pundits fall flat on their
face and I hope they will get their comeuppance along with Blair on
May 6th when the result turns out to be a big surprise.
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