Out of purdah
This is my first letter in a while because I have been in purdah due
to party rules governing the selection of candidates. Things have
changed in that time. First I should report that I was elected
Chairman (aka Leader) of the Conservative MEPs at the end of November.
This has changed my workload a bit in Brussels and Strasbourg but I am
determined it will not reduce my efforts in and on behalf of the
region.
Relieved and grateful
I am proud to say I received the necessary endorsement by the Regional
Selection College to be re-selected on our list for the next election.
I can now resume constituency activities in relieved and grateful
mode!
Changing workload
Becoming leader changes the shape of Strasbourg weeks by adding
several meetings to an already quite busy schedule. One of these is
the Bureau of the UK Delegation (ie Conservative MEPs) where mostly
organisational and financial matters are discussed although you can
imagine politics of one sort or another is ever present. I used to
attend these gatherings when I was delegation Treasurer so am familiar
with them.
Many heads make light work?
Another, and new, meeting is that of heads of delegation within the
EPP-ED (European Peoples Party – European Democrats – the political
group or coalition of centre right parties within the European
Parliament that we belong to as allied members until the next
election) which takes place for 2 ˝ hours late on Wednesday afternoon.
As there are 27 Member States represented in the European Parliament
and the EPP-ED is the only group with MEPs from every one of them so
you can imagine it is quite a large meeting.
Past experience helps
Such meetings do not come as a completely new experience however since
they have similarities with the Conference of Committee Chairmen which
I sat on for 2 ˝ years when I was Chairman of the Industry, Research
and Energy Committee. The general theme of that was organizational
matters and the only times it became at all interesting was when there
was a dispute over competences. That meant two or more committees
arguing that they should be the main or responsible committee for
particular reports or pieces of legislation. I took part in one or two
myself, crossing swords with French, German and Greek counterparts at
one time or another on behalf of my committee.
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Going in to bat
for Britain
So, now, I go in to bat on behalf of British Conservative MEPs, as we
are known, and speak with the strength of 28 as the second largest
delegation in the group after the German CDU/CSU delegation.
Telling tales out of school?
I don’t think it is telling tales out of school to reveal we are
presently locked in lengthy debate over a discussion paper about how
the various posts in the Parliament, which the group can claim, are
then distributed among the delegations. All the smaller delegations
feel the larger ones get too big a share while the larger ones
maintain that the smaller ones are already over-represented under the
variable electoral quote system (ie ratio of voters to MEPs). For
example 38,000 Luxembourg voters per MEP compared to 540,000 South
West voters per South West MEP.
d’Hondt system
This is actually very important twice in each five year term of the
Parliament when every post is attributed for 2 ˝ years. If there were
no system in place as a framework for doing deals and taking decisions
the process could be very long and messy. The d’Hondt system is a
mathematical formula for determining priorities according to size of
group or, rather, the number of MEPs in the group. At present the EPP-ED
is the largest with 288 with the PES second on 215 and the Liberals on
101. The remaining four groups plus the so-called non-aligned
(outcasts no-one else will sit with) add up to 180. So, with a total
of 784 MEPs, you can see that the larger groups dominate but no-one
has an overall majority.
Informal meetings keeping me busy
I also find myself in a whole series of smaller, informal meetings
discussing different aspects of our work as a delegation ranging from
a team meeting at the beginning of the week to discuss the agenda and
issues to one on one discussions about individual concerns and
problems. Fortunately I enjoy solving and fixing. The big plus in all
this is that the time rushes by and the week is over seemingly before
I have time to draw breath. This contrasts with my early days in the
Parliament when I was learning the ropes and started to feel homesick
round about Tuesday afternoon! One thing hasn’t changed, it still
takes a long time to travel home.
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