Nil Carborundum!
Longstanding readers of this newsletter may recall I sometimes dwell on travel and logistics, the minutiae of which have a bearing on how efficiently one does one’s work. The occasional hard time story illustrates how difficult it can be just getting to the place of work, especially Strasbourg. The business of fluids that can or cannot be carried on board aeroplanes disrupts my longstanding routine and means I may sometimes forget something when packing at 5.30am. The whole security check performance makes me wonder if the terrorists haven’t scored a point already through this hassle and delay we have to suffer.

A day of two halves
June Strasbourg has been busy. Monday is a day of two halves, travel and work. It takes at least 6 hours travelling from my London base to my Strasbourg office, leaving 6am and arriving 1pm local time. Add in the 3 1/2 -4 hours from my Devon home to London and you have quite a long travel albeit spread over 2 days. During the afternoon I empty the canteen and sort through my papers in it. The canteens, now made of plastic, take all our papers between Brussels and Strasbourg and back and I find it very useful for my spare shoes! Then I have various meetings around the Parliament in Strasbourg as well as phone conversations with my assistant in Brussels to deal with the business of the week.

Unbundling monopolies
Murphy’s Law finds me trying to cram in a group meeting, the opening of parliament, a meeting with the Director-General of the Commission Information Society Directorate, a preparatory meeting of the EPP-ED (European Peoples Party – European Democrats) group members of my committee to discuss a contentious vote on how much we should unbundle transmission systems or grids as well as speaking in the chamber or hemicycle on a report on broadband before the formal Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) Committee meeting at 7pm. I should add that the vote went well with a good majority on the key issue of ownership unbundling or breaking up vertically integrated monopolies. And, of course, all those meetings were in different places so I had plenty of exercise going to and fro. My wife never believes me when I tell her how much walking I have to do in airports and within the Parliament!

Telecoms and Galileo
Tuesdays are generally the busiest part of the week. In the morning I have a meeting with BT who were on a fishing expedition for information about who will do the reports on the Telecom Review but didn’t get much of a bite because I don’t know yet. Votes take place at noon. After lunch the programme is full with a UK delegation (ie Conservative MEPs) meeting for two hours which includes a discussion about Galileo the satellite navigation and earth monitoring project that has run into a bit of heavy weather over its financing and management.

Nuclear energy
Immediately after that I head for a meeting of the Forum for the Future of Nuclear Energy to hear about the UK Government White Paper and the nuclear policy element in particular. I have to leave after 30 minutes before hearing all the presentation in order to attend a meeting of the Conference of Delegation Chairmen. These only take place every few months so I felt I should be there wearing my newish hat as Chairman of the Australia and New Zealand Delegation.
 

Chasing around
Then I’m off to show my face at a Reception to celebrate the STOA Experience. STOA is the Science and Technology Office of Assessment for the European Parliament and they put on an exhibition of a range of systems and machines doing research and studies. I just missed the speech by Research Commissioner Potocnik but caught up with him at my next meeting which was an informal meeting of ITRE. This was for him to present a report on the European Research Area that we are working on in committee. After that I have to attend the regular EPP-ED group meeting before heading off to dinner with the outgoing representative of TOTAL, the French oil company, to introduce me to her replacement and discuss oil supply issues.

Visitor from across the Pond
Wednesday morning I have a meeting with a visitor from the US, a staff member from the Executive Office of the President Office of Management and Budget. He was a guest under the European Union Visitor Programme. It was quite refreshing to discuss research and energy issues with a US official because they view life differently from Europeans. Then the German journalist I had expected afterwards failed to show up so I had a brief bonus of time to nip off for a coffee. Lunch was spent with the Secretary-General of the EEF (European Energy Forum) discussing strategic issues to deal with succession challenges.

An Institute of Technology for Europe?
First thing in the afternoon I have to chair the regular co-ordination meeting for EPP-ED members of ITRE. However, proceedings were far from routine as we spent 55 minutes of the hour available debating the fate of the Commission proposal for an EIT or European Institute of Technology. This is the pet project of President Barroso aimed at creating a European equivalent of MIT or the Massachusetts Institute of Technology so we can’t reject it out of hand but there are many reservations about scope, structure and financing. Then I’m off to the other end of the building for a meeting with visiting Korean parliamentarians before returning for a preparatory meeting of EPP-ED members of CLIM, the temporary committee on climate change, to discuss its work programme.

A Midsummer Night’s reveille
On Thursday there is a group meeting followed by the formal CLIM committee meeting followed by votes and our Conservative Enterprise lunch which acts as a debrief of the week and forum to talk about upcoming issues. The tempo slows after lunch so I am able to work in my office going through emails, checking my website and so forth. I normally try to have a quiet early night so I am rested for the long travel back on Friday but this time it falls on the longest day when the French have street parties with pop groups pounding out loud music. Great fun but not conducive to sleep on a warm summer’s night!