SOUTH WEST FIRST
LETTER FROM STRASBOURG
March 2003
CLIMATE CHANGE
I leave London in cool, grey, cloudy gloom and find
Stuttgart is all blue skies and sunshine, while Strasbourg is 24ºC
(75ºF) and distinctly summery. All a bit disorienting.
WHAT’S UP DOCK?
I also find access to the Parliament building barred
by French police and anti-riot barricades, so we have to fiddle around
the back streets in order to get in. It seems that a huge demo (or “manifestation”
in French) by protesting dockers was expected. The debate on the Second
Reading of the draft Directive on market access to port services was
scheduled for Monday evening and the trade unions didn’t like the
prospect of liberalisation ending their cosy working practices. Does
this have a familiar ring to British ears?
KINNOCK TO ACCOUNT
In the Group meeting our Conservative MEPs leader
Jonathan Evans persuades the EPP-ED (European Peoples Party-European
Democrats - of which we are allied members) to support our call on the
Commission, and Neil Kinnock in particular, to attend the Parliament and
account for themselves over further revelations in the Marta Andreasson
affair about EU accounting procedures.
NEMESIS FOR NAUGHTY NEIL
It seems that a memo to the Welsh Windbag telling him
Mrs A. was right all along, which he received the day before he
suspended her “for not following correct procedure”, has come to
light in newspapers in Belgium, Germany and the U.K. Oops, naughty Neil
is back in the proverbial mire once again, and it is we Conservatives
putting him firmly in the frame. In the short term his pals on the left,
namely the Lib Dems, Socialists and the like, voted against calling him
to account, but watch this space.
FAIR TO US
Tuesday morning I have a meeting with key figures from
the Takeover Panel in London who have come to brief me and others on the
new Takeovers Draft Directive. Using my position as EPP-ED co-ordinator
on the Industry Committee, I had ensured that the committee do an
opinion and, to be doubly sure, I made myself draughtsman for it, to be
certain that UK interests have a fair crack of the whip. It is a bit
technical, so my education is proceeding apace, but it is all about that
elusive creature, the level playing field.
WORKING CONSERVATIVES
The rest of my Tuesday, which is generally the busiest
and most frantic day of the week for me, was taken up with regular
meetings of the UK Conservative Bureau (a rather sinister sounding
description of what amounts to a management committee), all the EPP-ED
members of my Industry Committee, a full meeting of the U.K. Delegation
of Conservative MEPs and a full meeting of the whole EPP-ED Group, as
well as several smaller bilateral meetings, such as with our delegation
accountant discussing Treasurer’s items and with the committee
secretariat members dealing with the Takeovers and the Measuring
Instruments Directives.
LABOUR’S GREAT COMPLICATOR
Wednesday finds me dangerously fraternising with the
U.K. government. First off, I am visited by a nice young woman from
Small Business Europe, a government financed office in Brussels, which
purports to speak on behalf of and lobby for all U.K. small businesses.
I regard it as an agency of New Labour spin paid for by the taxpayer,
and I think that U.K. business is increasingly aware of the marked
contrast between the pro business rhetoric and the anti business actions
of tax and spend Brown, aka the great complicator Gordon.
WORKING FOR THE NATION
Anyway, my next encounter is hosting a meeting of the
Ciel et Espace Intergroup where Alan Johnson M.P., Minister for
Aerospace, is the main speaker. Actually this was my initiative to
provide a platform for flying the flag for the U.K. industry and Mr.
Johnson was very effective at it, as well as being very friendly on
discovering my father’s aviation history. So it goes to show that we
do work together over there for the national interest when we can.
BEWARE OF LABOUR FASHIONS
Before you get worried about too much collaboration, I
also had a meeting with Foratom, the European nuclear energy trade
association, to discuss the forthcoming package of European nuclear
legislation, a conference in Prague where I am to give a speech and,
most importantly, the U.K. Energy White Paper which is besotted with
renewables in general, and windpower in particular, while being very
flabby and negative about the nuclear contribution to our electricity
supply. I have just written an article which argues that the Labour
government has lost the plot and tells them that the answer isn’t “blowin’
in the wind”. Beware fashions in energy policy!
A FRENCH FANCY
And all the while the big issue of Iraq swirled around
the corridors overshadowing our ‘business as usual’ mode. Reflecting
on the nauseating hypocrisy of French President Chirac pontificating
about peace and playing to the gallery, I asked myself is this the same
guy who came to the last Parliament and defied the placard waving Left
protesting in the chamber, who were against the French letting off
nuclear devices (euphemism for bomb) in the Pacific. And they talk about
perfidious Albion! Did anyone else see that photo of a younger Chirac
cosying up to a slimmer Saddam Hussein? Very interesting.
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