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This is a letter from a Brussels week
for a change.
On Monday I spend the morning travelling out by Eurostar and have the
unexpected pleasure of bumping into one of our regions MPs, Chris Chope,
on his way to a Council of Europe meeting. We have a good chat and I am
able to fast track him entry into the Parliament.
In the afternoon, I chair the Industry Committee meeting. I have to slip
out for a negotiation session on the text of a Joint Motion for
Resolution on Energy Security of Supply. I have to leave that half way
through so as to meet with members of the House of Lords Europe Scrutiny
Committee who want to talk to me about the nuclear package, a set of
Commission proposals seeking to establish a European standard of nuclear
operational safety, a regime for controlling funds set aside for
de-commissioning nuclear facilities and a regime for managing
radioactive waste, setting deadlines for adopting plans, locations and
dates for final disposal.
After that I go back for the closing stages of the committee and the
co-ordinators meeting that followed. Each political group elect their
own co-ordinator on each committee, they are a combination of whip,
leader and spokesman and those for the big groups (our European Peoples
Party – European Democrats {EPP-ED} and the Socialists) play a leading
role in deciding the business of the committee.
Tuesday morning we have a short committee session including votes and
then I have a meeting with representatives of the Royal Society to
discuss launching a ‘Pair a Scientist with a Politician’ scheme at a
European level. I view this as an excellent idea; both parties learn
from it. I have participated in similar schemes with industry (25 days
with Unilever) and the Armed Forces scheme more recently (22 days with
the Royal Navy.
After that I put on my European Energy Forum hat as chairman to run our annual luncheon
meeting with our Industrial and Technical Advisory Council (ITAC).
Basically, this is for our industrial members, whose subscriptions pay
for the cost of running the forum to review what we have been doing and
discuss future plans. We are pretty active with both dinner debates and
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external visits and this seems to meet
with approval.
My afternoon disappears beneath a series of half hour meetings about a
range of topics with bodies like the Construction Products Association,
Europia - the European petrol industry association, the South West
representative office, representatives from the European Commission
about space policy and GlaxoSmithKline about a workshop I am due to
chair for them on biomedical research in Europe. In the evening, I
attend an Enterprise First Europe dinner debate with representatives of
STEP the Society of Trust & Estate Practitioners and fellow Conservative
MEPs discussing the 3rd Money Laundering Directive and how it will
affect Trusts in the UK. Rather a gloomy topic.
Wednesday seems largely taken up with discussing the Joint Motion on
Energy within working group and full group meetings in the morning
followed by leading off the debate in plenary in the afternoon. As the
signatory of the Oral Question which provoked the debate, I had five
minutes to launch the proceedings and put our question. It is a matter
of some satisfaction to see energy come centre stage as the wider world
wakes up to our supply situation and import dependency.
Thursday finds me leaving early on my way to a constituency day which
involves even more travel than usual because I am going to Gibraltar. It
involves a tight schedule as I am due to give a talk at the Royal
Gibraltar Yacht Club that evening at 8pm and the scheduled landing of
the flight is 7.25pm. Naturally the flight was a bit delayed, it was
very windy on the final approach and the pilot had to fly in pretty fast
before making what I can only describe as a very firm landing and coming
to a halt a good 40 yards from the sea at the end of the runway. My talk
was about my father’s flying and sailing exploits, so the manner of
arriving seemed in keeping.
The next day I worked my way through a pretty full programme of meetings
and visits. We started with a breakfast meeting with Conservative
friends and supporters to bring me up to speed on local issues. Then an
interview with Germaine Silva of the Gibraltar Chronicle (click here for
photo) followed by a meeting with four members of the Environmental
Safety Group (click
here for photo) about the big oil refinery across
the bay in Spain and pollution issues. My South West colleague, Neil
Parish MEP, is already on the case with them but I dare say they would
prefer
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two of us trying to do something.
Then it’s a brisk walk uphill to GBC (not me but the Gibraltar
Broadcasting Company) for a five minute TV interview on why I’m here,
how I can help with European issues and a bit about my father who was
in Gibraltar in 1970. Actually, my family links go back even farther
as my Great Uncle the Admiral was Superintendent of the Dockyard in
1902 - 04.
Next we meet up with Gib Telecom (click
here for photo)
to discuss
their problems with the Spanish authorities (not their telecom
counterparts) about the allocation of numbers and roaming. They kindly
entertain us to lunch afterwards.
Then I have a one to one meeting with Peter Caruana QC the Chief
Minister. I am complimented that he made time to see and brief me on
the prospects for a constitution and progress on some of the issues
they have with the Spanish authorities. The outlook seems more
encouraging than back in 2004. (Click here for photo)
Then I’m off to visit the Financial Services Commission for another
briefing. They are proud of their record on implementation of
Directives and confident that very little money laundering is possible
while pointing to the importance to the Gibraltar economy of internet
gaming and financial services.
Next I meet Gordon Nelson of the Disability Awareness Group to discuss
his petition about access to aircraft and problems with European
legislation not being applied properly in Gibraltar because of Spanish
roadblocks, to mix my metaphors. This is followed by another interview
for Gibfocus Radio this time.
Finally I walk along a busy Main Street to visit the splendid
Stagnetto brothers cigar shop (click here for photo) where I make a
modest purchase and discuss mutual friends back in the UK. I thought
that was the end of my programme but I was surrounded by three
charming young fund-raisers for St John Ambulance (click here for
photo) so I coughed up of course in exchange for a photo!
The flight back was smooth and successful.
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