SOUTH WEST FIRST
Letter
From Strasbourg
July
2001
AT LAST……….
The smell of summer is upon us
and Strasbourg swelters for the final session before the break.
The building seems unusually quiet when I arrive on Monday, yet I
have plenty on my plate for the week.
NEW
PRESIDENCY
The perceived highlights of the
week (according to the Parliament Directorate for Press and Audiovisual
Services) are the end of the Swedish Presidency of the Council of
Ministers and the start of the Belgian Presidency (each lasts for six
months); the presentation of the ECB (European Central Bank) Annual
Report for 2000; the final decision on the Take-Overs Directive; a
debate on human rights across
the world; a discussion on EU (European Union, as if you didn't know)
strategy for the forthcoming UN (United Nations) climate change
conference; the issue of aid for Yugoslavia and a statement on the
forthcoming G8 Summit (G8=G7 top seven economies in the world plus
Russia) from the European Commission.
COMPLACENT
INDULGENCE
Before moving onto my week,
which covered a rather different range of topics and meetings, I can't
resist commenting on the above list.
The longwinded title for the press office tempts the thought of
an alternative acronym, but I had better not spell it out.
What we really want to know from Wim Duisenberg at the ECB is
what they are going to do next, not what they did in 2000.
I can't help feeling that to debate human rights issues across
the world is really a staggeringly complacent piece of self-satisfied
indulgence which presumes we are superior to the rest (a dubious
proposition when set against some of the authoritarian acts of a New
Labour Home Secretary). And aid for Yugoslavia should be sub titled payment for
delivery of former Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevich to The Hague.
BUSINESS
AS USUAL
On Tuesday, I have my regular
clutch of meetings and a few more.
The first extra is a discussion among Industry Committee
officers, co-ordinators and rapporteurs for the Sixth Framework
Programme of European Research. This
meeting is about the schedule for the various stages of the Report and
boils down to shall we play it long to give time to consider all the
amendments that will undoubtedly be put down and to conduct informal
discussion with the Council or shall we try to push ahead with the first
reading to show we are treating the matter with appropriate seriousness.
COMPROMISES
Because the Commissioner
responsible is Belgian, the Belgian Presidency will naturally be keen to
make good progress. However,
the Parliament will wish to display some power by bidding up the
proposed budget as well as changing the content of some of the
programmes. So we want to make haste slowly to encourage flexibility on
both counts. I suggest a
timetable somewhere in between which being a typical European compromise
enables more or less everyone to go off content.
PARLIAMENTARY
TOUR
My next activity is to meet up
with Tom Kuhn and family for a quick tour of the Parliament. He is the President of the Edison Electrical Institute which
is the trade association for the electricity industry in the USA and has
come to speak at a European Energy Foundation
dinner debate on the new US energy policy and what happened in
California. His wife and he
have two young daughters aged 5 and 7 which presents me with a bit of a
challenge to make the European Parliament building interesting and
entertaining. I mean, there is a limit to how many times you can get them
to push the lift (sorry, elevator) buttons.
Situation is compounded by Mr & Mrs K saying they like the
architecture, so I have to bite my tongue and hold back some of my more
acerbic comments. Fortunately,
a couple of chocolat chauds and seats in the tribune (visitors gallery)
seem to fit the bill.
CBI
VISIT
After votes at noon I have a bit
of a gap to enable me to catch up on faxes and papers before I get a
call to help a couple of visitors from the CBI get into the Parliament.
This means a walk across the river and through the old building,
but serves to underline that Conservative MEPs are responding to the
CBI. It also means we can
have a chat about one or two activities we are doing with them later
this year.
INDUSTRY
REPORT
Then it's off to chair my
co-ordination meeting for all EPP-ED (European Peoples Party-European
Democrats) members of the Industry Committee.
We discuss the progress on the Research Report; final details on
the second reading of the draft directive for generating electricity
from renewable energy sources; who should do an opinion on low sulphur
fuels; and the first reading on a report about allocating frequency
spectrum for mobile telephony.
PROMOTING
BOURNEMOUTH
Next a rush to our own
Conservative MEPs delegation meeting for an exchange of views with Sir
Nigel Sheinwald, the U.K. Permanent Representative to the E.U.
I only catch the tail end as the meeting begins at 3 p.m. while
my Industry meeting ends at 3.30 p.m.
We also discuss other issues coming up during the week,
especially the Take-Over Directive final reading, before moving on to
debate our effective exclusion from the preliminary stages of the
leadership contest and where to suggest the EPP-ED study days should be
located in the UK in September 2002.
I naturally argue strongly for Bournemouth (sorry Torbay, but
Bournemouth is where the Party Conference goes every other year) and the
decision is deferred until September.
TRICKY
SITUATION
After that I have a meeting with
representatives of the European Chemicals Industry on the White Paper
Report which is being done jointly by the Environment Committee (as
lead) and our Industry Committee under the Hughes procedure, whereby the
lead committee undertakes to include all the opinions of the other
committees. This will be a
tricky situation because the enthusiasts want to regulate the industry
very tightly.
CARCASS
BURIALS
Co-incidentally I then have a
meeting with the said Mr Hughes who is a Labour MEP.
We have an issue in common concerning disposal pits for FMD (Foot
and Mouth Disease) carcasses and we are planning a joint approach to the
Environment Commissioner. The
object will be to present evidence of the concerns of our constituents
that European health and waste regulations are being broken
by MAFF now DEFRA (Department for the Environment, Food and Rural
Affairs), since the post-election re-shuffle and re-organisation.
The handling of the FMD outbreak by the Government is an ongoing issue
despite the apparent success they have had in brushing it under the
carpet.
WILL
THE LIGHTS GO OUT?
After that its off to chair the
dinner debate on the topic 'Will the lights go out in Europe?'
This seemed to me a more attention grabbing title than Security
of Supply of Energy in Europe. It seemed to work because upwards of 60 people attended,
including nearly 20 colleague MEPs, to listen to Tom Kuhn from the
Edison Electrical Institute and
Alan Grant the new Director of the Oil and Gas Producers
International Association (on the question is there enough oil
and gas, unsurprisingly). Fortunately
for me the only stunt anyone pulled was to bring along a model
aerogenerator (a modern windmill), as I had visions of some clever type
arranging to pull the plug during dinner to plunge us all in darkness.
KEEPING
UP THE MYSTIQUE
On Wednesday morning I put in an
appearance before the Backbench Committee in my capacity as Hon
Treasurer of Conservative MEPs. I
used to be Chairman of the 1979 Committee, to give it the correct title,
in the last Parliament, but this was the first time I had been invited
to speak as a guest. The
aim was to explain our sources of funding for information and political
activities as well as how the budget is put together.
This process is somewhat shrouded in secrecy for reasons of
confidentiality mostly, but we treasurers never object to keeping up the
mystique, so this was a good move to cast more light.
They put me through it and suggested I might care to come back
again. Of course, I said,
thinking I could stand a wait.
CRITICAL
TIMETABLE
Next I had meetings with one of
the Rapporteurs pour Avis or draughtsmen of opinion for another
Committee submitting an opinion on my Report on Security of
Supply as well as with the member of our secretariat covering the report
with me. The meeting went
better than I thought, considering that Phillippe Herzog is a French
communist. Although he is
less enthusiastic about market mechanisms and favours intervention more
than I, we agree upon the importance of nuclear energy.
We shall see. The
other part of the meeting was to revise the timetable for the stages of
the report including the deadline for me to produce the draft text in
time for the interpreters to have it available for the first committee
meeting of the summer. I
shall have to get down to it the third week in July, when I had hoped to
be taking a break.
NOTHING
IS STRAIGHTFORWARD
At noon on Wednesday we held the
vote on the Lehne Report on the conciliation agreement between the
European Parliament and the European Council concerning the Take-Over
Directive. This vote
constituted the third and final reading of the proposal and should have
been a straightforward adoption of the result of the conciliation
process. However Mr. Lehne
decided he still couldn't accept the changes agreed
and whipped up opposition to such an extent that the vote was
tied at 273 for 273 against, whereupon the whole proposal fell after
many years work and negotiation.
THE
POWER OF PARLIAMENT
The Germans, to put it simply,
deeply resented the hostile takeover of Mannesman by Vodfafone and were
determined to block any legislation perceived as making such takeovers
easier. This illustrates
that Parliament does have power to stop legislation, that national
interests can prevail, provided you can assemble a coalition of support
among the political groups and national delegations.
TIME
WILL TELL
I won't go into the detail of
the affair except to say that it concerns a philosophical difference of
opinion about whether hostile takeover bids are good economics by
imposing competition and market forces or bad by allowing existing
managers and owners to be displaced for no particular benefit.
I incline to the former view and believe the Germans will find
this to be a pyrrhic victory with the cost coming in the form of worse
economic performance (on top of the effects of a weak euro, I dare say),
but time will tell.
VISIT
FROM DOWN UNDER
After that I attended a two hour
regular meeting of our Bureau, the management committee for the
delegation of Conservative MEPs. Followed
by a meeting with a visiting MP from New Zealand in my capacity
as a Member of the European Parliament Delegation for
interparliamentary relations with Australia and New Zealand.
He was a whip for the ruling Labour Party Government, but seemed
more interested in talking about our recent
General Election. He did observe that he felt the EP was almost surreal which
seems to me not a bad description of the odd way we do things.
I was able to steer him onto the somewhat controversial decision
by New Zealand to effectively abandon its air defence capability on
grounds of cost. This had
not gone down terribly well in Australia, even in the Australian Labour
Party as we discovered during the Delegation visit there in May.
THE
TWO GILLES CLUB
Next on my agenda came the
inaugural meeting of the Ciel & Espace
InterGroup, the Aerospace cross party body aimed at promoting
European industry. I had
played a role in getting it re-established along with a French Socialist
MEP called Gilles Savary. He
was confirmed as President and I became First Vice-President.
I think of it as the "Two Gilles Club".
A
EUROPEAN SKY
Anyway we agreed a forward
programme of meetings about aerospace in the 6th Framework
Programme of Research, about the Commission proposal for unifying
European air traffic control into what they call a single European sky,
about Galileo the alternative navigation and communication satellite
system and about trade disputes with the USA over what constitutes state
aids for Airbus and Boeing. So there is plenty to discuss and I hope to keep the flag
flying for U.K. interests, by playing a leading part in this InterGroup.
WHO
WILL WIN?
After that it was back to my
office to check for messages and sift paper before heading off to our
delegation (Conservative MEPs and staff) summer reception aimed at
sending everyone off in a good mood for the Summer Break.
I don't mind admitting that I enjoyed it and the dining club
dinner I attended afterwards. The
conversation flowed, particularly about the leadership contest at home. We seem to have captured the interest of the media and the
press in a contest which will take a long time and whose outcome seems
by no means clear. Whoever
wins has a mighty challenge on his hands because we need to do much more
than just change faces at the top.
MEPs
OPINION SHOULD COUNT
I look forward with interest to
hearing from those candidates who take the trouble to meet we MEPs who,
after all, are the only Conservative Parliamentarians who were elected
by the whole country not just 25% of it like the MPs.
Conservative MPs represent just a quarter of the constituencies
in the U.K.
STRANGE
WORLD
On a different note altogether,
I travelled back to England on Thursday evening, earlier than my usual
practice of returning on Fridays, so as to be home in good
time for a most important date
on Friday. On the journey I
spent a little time reading a book my elder son gave me for Christmas
last year, but have only just found time to start.
Its title is Hannibal and is about one Dr. Hannibal Lector who is
not only a killer but a cannibal. It
is a gripping yarn but I was struck by the irony of a lifelong
vegetarian like myself reading such a book.
AN
ENGLISH SUMMER
That most important date?
Well once a year, I make a pilgrimage to Henley Royal Regatta to
watch some rowing and wallow down memory lane to the time when I
competed for my school, college or club at the regatta.
In those days I viewed the spectators on the bank as being rather
superfluous to the main business of rowing.
Nowadays, I like to think that my spending time and money in the
enclosure helps to pay for all the facilities of the course enjoyed by
today's oarsmen, just as the spectators then contributed towards my
enjoyment on the river
thirty to forty years ago.
What a contrast to Strasbourg, what a quintessentially English
occasion it all is, and long may it remain so.
ENJOY
THE SUMMER
I wish everyone a long, warm and
restful summer. I look
forward to resuming normal service at the end of August.
Please note that there will not be a Letter in August, the next will be
Sepember
Giles
Chichester
48 Queen Street
EXETER EX4 3SR
Tel:- 01392 491815
Fax:- 01392 491588
Email/Website:
GilesChichesterMEP@eclipse.co.uk
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