SOUTH WEST FIRST
LETTER FROM STRASBOURG
February 2004
DEMOB HAPPY?
It may still be
February but there is more than a hint of the end of term about the
Plenary session agenda. For example, we didn’t have one of our regular
“extraordinary” committee meetings on the Monday evening to vote on
urgent business. And, increasingly, we talk of Reports being carried
over to the new Parliament because we can’t complete the procedures by
April (eg my Report on Security of Supply of Electricity).
CONTINUED ALLIANCE
However, one matter that
could not wait was the announcement that we Conservative MEPs will
continue our allied membership of the EPP-ED (European Peoples’
Party-European Democrats) Political Group in the next Parliament until
2009. The EPP-ED group comprises 232 MEPs from over thirty national
parties from all 15 Member States and is the largest group in the
Parliament.
CENTRE-RIGHT
TOGETHER BUT SEPARATE
UK Conservatives have a
special status within this Group because we are not members of the
trans-national EPP party organisation and do not subscribe to its
federalist, integrationist aims. So we reserve our right to vote
differently on constitutional, social and monetary policy issues (about
30% of all votes) while co-operating on the majority of issues and votes
where we agree with our partners. This enables us to influence the
mainstream centre-right without compromising issues of key importance to
Conservatives.
THE CONSERVATIVE
VISION
This announcement on
Tuesday prefaced a major speech by Michael Howard on Thursday in Berlin
where he set out our Conservative vision for a flexible Europe, while
underlining that our membership of the EPP-ED (we are the ED part of the
Group) means we are significant players in the centre-right mainstream
of European politics.
LESS OF A THREAT?
Curiously, within
the EPP-ED there were relatively few voices of dissent from the
federalist wing compared to the French. When we last renewed our terms
of allied membership five years ago, the opponents to it formed the
Schuman Group within the EPP-ED to counter what they viewed as our
dangerous Euro-sceptic influence, but their silence was conspicuous on
this occasion which may mean they don’t find us as threatening as they
feared or that we have been effective in moving this debate towards our
ground. Or, possibly, they recognise the benefit of our numbers!
FIT OF FRENCH
PIQUE
The French MEPs, on
the other hand, acted up like a bunch of kids throwing their toys out of
the nursery in their pique (nice English word) at not having such a
good, special membership arrangement as we British. A number of them
actually stormed out of the meeting where this was being discussed. Of
course the French centre-right, unlike the clearly united and
re-invigorated Conservative Party in Britain, is in disarray and split
into many parties (five in the EPP-ED by my count) as they jockey for
position in the post-Chirac era to come. So we were merely the catalyst
for a bit of an internal spat.
PRESS INTEREST
So what else
happened? Well, it snowed overnight on the Tuesday so I had a slushy
walk in on Wednesday morning. And I spent quite a long time talking to
reporter Lee Morgan from Mid-Devon at the end of the day on Monday, so I
hope plenty of positive coverage comes out of it. It would seem the
local press in Devon and Dorset has woken up to the fact of an election
taking place in June and are actually seeking out MEPs to find out what
we do. I had another similar interview in Bournemouth at the end of the
previous week. They could do worse than look at archive copies of past
editions of this newsletter on my website (hint, hint) to get a flavour
of the last 4½ years.
UKIP ABANDON UK WTD
OPT-OUT
We voted on a report
about the Working Time Directive (WTD) and a whole bunch of Labour MEPs
voted against our amendment drafted so as to preserve the UK opt-out.
That does not surprise me since they supported the WTD from the word
go. But I was surprised that all three UKIP MEPs voted with them, which
hardly fits with their claim to be fighting for Britain’s interests.
Perhaps they were confused by the proceedings, after all they aren’t
visible in the Parliament that often, but if they did make a mistake
that doesn’t say much about their competence either!
COLOMBIAN COFFEE
BREAK
I may have
inadvertently made the constituent, who urged me to boycott the
appearance of Colombian President Uribe in the hemicycle, happy by
leaving the formal session to talk to a group of student visitors from
Exeter University at noon on Tuesday in between voting sessions. I
confess I normally use these formal sessions with speeches by foreign
dignitaries as a bit of an excuse for a coffee break!
COMMISSION ACT
ON DOLPHIN DEATHS
I hope that all the
constituents who have been writing to me about the death of dolphins as
a by-catch from fishing would be pleased at my voting on the Kinderman
Report on a proposal from the Commission to do something about this
situation, specifically with a proposal to introduce “pingers”.
PREVENTION IS
BETTER THAN CURE
My colleague John
Bowis MEP presented his Report on a proposal to establish a European
Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. This is to be located in
London and its tasks are to identify, assess and communicate current and
emerging risks. Given understandable concerns in the press and media
over outbreaks of SARS, avian flu, malaria and other infectious diseases
around the world, this seems a prudent move.
THE LAST COURSE?
Finally, I can’t resist mentioning the Brie Report on Afghanistan. What
a combination!
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