SOUTH WEST FIRST
LETTER FROM STRASBOURG
March 2004
A WOMAN’S
WORLD?
At Stuttgart Airport we gathered a selection of MEPs from Sweden,
Denmark, Austria, Germany and the UK (me) for the car ride to
Strasbourg. A Danish colleague clutches a bouquet of flowers. “Well,
you see, it’s International Women’s Day”, she says “and it seemed a
shame to leave them at home with my husband and two sons, even though
they did make me breakfast.” It transpires they do this regularly
because they recognise she is the boss!
IRAQ ATROCITY
At the opening of the session Strasbourg,
the President of the Parliament expresses condemnation of the terrorist
attacks against the Shia communities in Baghdad and Karbala during their
Ashura Festival. 170 people were murdered and many injured in this
crude and contemptible attempt to provoke a civil war in Iraq. We stood
for a minute’s silence.
CELEBRATING EMANCIPATION
There followed a debate on International Women’s Day in which we mere
males were mostly onlookers. Evidently this has been celebrated for
nearly 90 years and owes its origin to mass protests in 1911 by women in
Denmark, Germany, Austria and Switzerland demanding the right to vote,
to hold public office, to work and to vocational training. I think my
mother would be pleased to see how much has changed since then.
VIVE LA DIFFERENCE
We had a committee meeting (Industry,
External Trade, Research and Energy) the same evening to vote on various
reports and an opinion on gender equality and discrimination, a matter
not unconnected to the theme of the day. The opinion was drafted by my
Conservative colleague Roger Helmer who raised a number of points to
illustrate that to demand the same treatment was not necessarily to be
equal. Different retirement ages and different levels of pension for
men and women were cited as consequent upon the fact of differences in
longevity. However, the Commission spokeswoman, the Socialists and
other parties of the left (Communists, Greens and Liberal Democrats)
were having none of it and voted down all amendments.
SECURITY
OF SUPPLY SPEECH
Tuesday saw me trying to work on the text and illustrations for a speech
I am due to deliver at the Adam Smith Institute on Security of Supply
for energy in Europe. This follows on all the work I did three years
ago on the Green Paper of the same title and ties in with the current
work I am doing on the Commission draft directive to safeguard
electricity security of supply and infrastructure investments.
BRAIN DRAIN
Later in the afternoon, I did a television interview for BBC World on
the “brain drain” of scientist researchers leaving Europe for, in
particular, the USA. The prompt for this item was the threat by French
scientists to go on strike if no more money was put into research by the
French Government. In other words a bit of old fashioned trade union
pressure for more pay. At short notice my researcher Natalie rustled up
some background notes on two studies into the issue.
FRENCH HIT
NAIL ON HEAD
The study for the French Senate (upper house) tells of “a discouraging
landscape of administrative convolution, heavy taxes and inflexible
labour legislation”. Put together with representations made by various
industry associations that the levels of regulation, taxation and
administrative burdens on business in Europe are encouraging relocation
outside the EU, that R&D effort tends to be located where the business
is located and we have a pretty clear illustration of the wider problem
of Euro-sclerosis which is damaging our economic health and prospects.
BIG
BROTHER IS HERE
Let me mention two of the many reports we voted during the week. One
asserted that the demands now being made for data transfer by the US
authorities for all passengers travelling to the US constitute a serious
infringement of EU data protection standards. Iris and fingerprint
recognition as well as electronic data strips in passports suggest to me
that big brother is truly with us and people may begin to question
whether going places is worth the hassle.
INCREDIBLE
PROPOSALS
The other was an attempt at reforming the tobacco regime which
subsidises low quality cultivation in Greece and southern Italy to
safeguard jobs in impoverished rural areas. A classic piece of EU
double think whereby we legislate to ban advertising tobacco and
discourage smoking on the one hand and subsidise producing the stuff on
the other. We Conservatives voted against the subsidies.
CO2 DEBATE
Wednesday saw me eating the same menu both at lunch and dinner
(fortunately it wasn’t bad) attending discussions on the linking
directive for CDM and JI and the Access to Gas Networks regulation.
Clean Development Mechanism allows companies to invest in projects
around the world which reduce CO2 (carbon dioxide) emissions. They can
then set the ‘carbon credits’ thus created against their carbon
liabilities under the Emissions Trading scheme. Joint Implementation is
something similar. The gas regulation debate was quite lively because
the incumbent networks don’t want it while other parts of the industry
do, so as to enhance competition.
SUPPORT
FOR FINNISH COLLEAGUE
I also did another interview for Finnish TV about one of my colleagues
and whether her qualities and experience qualify her as a potential
leader of her party. I said yes, of course, and was happy to extol her
virtues and strengths. So we men have our uses!
ANOTHER
TERRORIST ACT
Thursday morning we heard the breaking news of the terrorist bombs in
Madrid and stood for a minute’s silence. So the week went full circle
and ended on a similar note as we stood and thought of the dead, injured
and loved ones whose lives are blighted by these ghastly acts.
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