Graham Watson MEP

Graham's blog Friday 13th May

Greetings,

My constituency office moved this week. Our new address is The Liberty, Old Kelways, Langport, Somerset TA10 9SJ and the new email address is info@grahamwatsonmep.

Parliament met in Strasbourg this week. We called for a more united approach from EU member states towards the uprisings in the Arab World. Divisions have meant, for example, that though the EU has placed travel bans and asset freezes on a number of leading representatives of Syria's government, the list of names does not include President Assad. We voted for new rules on the labelling of leather and textile garments to make it clear whether they contain any animal fur. We agreed to a suspension of tariffs on certain imports from Pakistan for a three year period to help the country recover from the economic impact of last year's disastrous flooding. And we obtained agreement to a common register for the Commission and Parliament to show contact with lobbyists immediately prior or in the process of the drafting of legislation.

My week involved hosting on Wednesday another meeting of MEPs keen to keep up the campaign for justice for jailed Russian businessman Mikhail Khodorkovsky and hosting the showing of a film about his case by director Cyril Tuschi, who won an award for it this week at the Munich Film Festival. The film, 'Khodorkovsky', explores the events leading up to his falling out with Vladimir Putin and his jailing on dubious charges on non-payment of corporate tax. The verdict in his appeal against his second sentence is due on Tuesday. I also spoke in a debate to denounce human rights abuses by the government of Azerbaijan.

The EU has made an extra EUR 85 million available to Palestine after Israel froze the payment of EUR 60 million it has collected in Palestinian tax revenue. This money, in addition to the EUR 100 million already granted, will allow the Palestinian authority to keep paying teachers and health service workers.

A secret meeting of a number of euro-zone finance ministers (together with the commissioner for economic and monetary affairs and the governor of the European Central Bank) in Luxembourg last Friday to discuss the situation in Greece caused a general raising of parliamentary eyebrows: given the sensitivity of the matter one can understand their wish to meet privately, but it does little to instil confidence in the joint management of the economy which the EU's Treaties bestow on Council and Parliament.

Commissioner Barnier (France, centre-right) used a speech on Europe Day (9 May) to call for the posts of President of the European Commission and President of the European Council to be merged. This future 'President of the EU' could be elected either directly or perhaps, for a transitional period, by an elected college comprised of MEPs and member state MPs. The idea has merit but, like the proposals by my colleague Andrew Duff MEP for the election of some MEPs on transnational lists, it is likely to go nowhere fast in the current climate.

I travel to Beijing on Sunday to take part in a dialogue between the Chinese Communist Party and EU political parties. The first of these conferences was held last year and allowed for a robust exchange of views in public and - in private - some remarkably frank admissions by China's leaders of the reforms the country needs. I will also address their academy of social sciences. I'll be back in Brussels midweek and will write as usual next Friday.

Regards

Graham