SOUTH WEST FIRST
LETTER FROM STRASBOURG - March 2002
SPREADING THE WORD
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SUNSHINE
AT LAST
Back to Strasbourg for the March
Plenary session. I leave
London with cool weather and find it hot and sunny at Stuttgart, so we
have a pretty warm bus ride to Strasbourg.
In fact the weather varied all week with one very cold night,
rain, mild cloudy and warm sunny spells coming one after the other.
SOME
SUCCESS
I carry a bundle of emails and
letters about vitamin supplements and the draft directive which is
causing lots of concern. I
am able to track down the colleagues handling this issue and reassure
myself that we will be voting the right way (against) on the proposal,
so I can organise a reply to all my correspondents and a press release.
We failed to stop the proposal but did secure an amendment
doubling the time available for smaller manufacturers to assemble the
necessary information to get their products on the positive list.
KNOWING
THE PROCEDURE
In my committee area, the main
piece of business was the energy package of a draft directive on
completing the single market in electricity and gas and a regulation
covering cross border trading in electricity.
We had had a long vote in committee and were now hoping to
complete the first reading in time for the Barcelona Council to consider
it at the end of the week. The
Spanish Presidency has been very keen on getting the proposals through
in time to be able to say they are making progress.
As I write this I hear Mr Blair is claiming success which goes to
prove he hasn't lost his
arrogant dis-regard for parliamentary procedure and his capacity for
spin and presentation.
A
LONG WAY TO GO
The point being that these
measures have to go back to the Council with all the amendments adopted
by the European Parliament, and they must be considered by the Council
before it adopts its Common position.
In turn that comes back before the European Parliament for us to
consider whether we accept it or wish to insist on any of our first
reading amendments not accepted by the Council.
If we do, then we must do so by absolute majority i.e. 314 or
more votes. Then we may
move into the conciliation phase between second and third reading.
BLAIR
HYPE
All this takes some time and
nothing can be taken for granted by the Council, so to say the deal has
been struck is pure Blair hype. He
should know more about the way the European institutions function than
appears to be the case. A
malicious rumour has it that he finds the late night negotiating
sessions most tiresome in both senses of the word, so perhaps poor
little Bambi would prefer to be safely tucked up in bed at an early
hour, rather than grapple with the minutiae of European legislation.
I shall wait to see the fine print before I can agree about a
successful opening of the market.
AN
EMPTY BOAST
During the debate, which took
place on the Tuesday morning, I had two minutes speaking time in which
to have a go at French state owned monopolies such as Edf or Electricite
de France which cling on to their privileged and protectionist position
in their home market, while not being averse to going forth to exploit
market opportunities in other countries, such as England where they have
taken over South West Electricity.
This strikes me as perfidious Gaul in action, displaying double
standards, or inequitable in parliamentary language, which must change.
Let it be said the first draft directive on liberalising the
electricity market was proposed by the European Commission early in the
nineties, ten years ago, and the French have been dragging their feet
ever since, so for Tony boy to claim success is an empty boast to put it
mildly.
ABUSE
OF POSITION
After the vote took place on
Wednesday, I heard that some French colleagues within our EPP-ED Group
(European Peoples Party - European Democrats, the largest group in the
Parliament, of which we are allied members) had a separate whip which
included reference to voting against the "Chichester anti EdF
amendment". This
flatters my vanity, but to be honest, it was a Green amendment demanding
that French and German utilities do not use the funds, accumulated to
pay for de-commissioning nuclear power plants, to buy up utilities in
other countries. I was
naturally supportive of this amendment because I am quite sure EdF has
abused its state backed credit rating to borrow funds at lower rates
than its commercial rivals could obtain in order to take over SWEB and
London Electricity.
JUST
THIS ONCE
So just for once I supported a
Green. But not on most of
their amendments which were far too detailed and prescriptive as well as
promoting environmental or social objectives not directly relevant to a
market opening measure. Unfortunately
they managed to persuade the Socialists and the Liberals to vote for all
their interventionist stuff so it went through.
One of the more ludicrous requirements, to my mind, was on energy
labelling.
GOING
OVER THE TOP
The directive requires
information about source of electricity, the fuel mix, to be included on
bills to the consumer. A
reasonable suggestion. However,
the Greens want much more detailed information about not only past
sources but what the future mix will be, and a lot of data about CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions as well
as about nuclear waste costs (their real target) which would be
difficult to supply (who can say with certainty what the fuel mix for
the next months would be) and seems over the top to me.
UNFINISHED
BUSINESS
On a different tack, somewhat to
my amusement, the new Liberal Group co-ordinator on the Industry
Committee asked for a meeting between himself, the Socialist Group
co-ordinator and myself as EPP-ED co-ordinator, to discuss how we
run things. I turned
up at the appointed place at the due time, 4.30 p.m. on Wednesday, only
to find he had cried off 15 mins before, pleading unfinished business!
So I have yet to discover what he wants to know, but perhaps he
has yet to make his mind up about it, which is the usual Lib Dem
problem.
MINISTER
BAITING
I decided to use the time freed
up by this last minute cancellation to look in on the Animal Welfare
Intergroup where the Spanish Minister responsible for such matters was
due to attend as President in Council.
He turned out to be a former colleague from the Parliament and
EPP, one Miguel Arias Canete. The
sport for the afternoon turned out to be a bit of Minister baiting by
various opponents of bullfighting.
MOVING
WITH THE TIMES
This is an issue which crops up
from time to time in my mailbag, so I was interested to listen to his
comments. It seems that in
Spain the autonomous regions are really just that and some have banned
bullfighting while others support it.
The comparison was drawn between bulls reared for their meat who
were slaughtered after 8-12 months and the ones destined for the corrida
who enjoyed five years life before going into the ring.
The implication of relative quality and length of life was pretty
pointed. An Irish Green MEP
observed rather tartly that the Romans used to throw Christians to the
Lions but we have moved on from those bad old days, so the barbaric
practice of bullfighting should be banned forthwith.
SPANISH
PRACTICES
This sounded to me a rather
extreme version of the sort of sour puritanical rhetoric we get from the
more rabid opponents of hunting here in the UK.
I was struck by the thought that we interfere in the custom and
practice of other countries at our peril and since I am a supporter of
English rural custom and practice over hunting, I am not inclined to
moralise about bullfighting in Spain.
There are one or two other Spanish practices like pressurising
Gibraltar, hogging the largest share of regional funds and over-fishing
in other peoples waters that I am more willing to criticise, but they do
affect us, whereas bull-fighting does not.
COMMUNIST
DAMAGE
The week finishes for me with a
seminar back in Devizes on European issues.
I am particularly taken by the comments of the representative
from the Polish Embassy about how they view the EU, enlargement and how
things should work in the future. In
reply to an observation that the candidate countries of central and
eastern Europe have a dramatically lower gdp (gross domestic product)
than Western Europe, she pointed out that pre-war Poland had comparable
gdp per capita but 45 years of communist economics did a lot of damage.
LOOK
TO THE FUTURE
I remain certain that we must
bring these countries back into the European family of nations, underpin
their rediscovered democracy and freedom with economic help, and thereby
enhance the security of Europe as well as help create our markets of the
future. And we need to do it before either they get fed up waiting or
the Russians start asserting themselves again.
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