SOUTH WEST FIRST
LETTER FROM STRASBOURG
January 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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