Graham's Blog

Graham's Blog, Friday 16 July 2010

2010-07-16T00:00+01:00

The European Parliament rises today for its summer recess, which this year is one week longer than usual. We do not return until 30 August, and there was a sense of demob happiness among MEPs. I was surprised to be the only UK Lib Dem MEP who attended Wednesday evening's summer drinks reception thrown by the Brussels local party of the UK Liberal Democrats; we have many members who live and work in Brussels, for the EU institutions or in other areas, who all have a valuable contribution to make, and the event was well supported.

One change associated with being in government is the need to be in London more. I spent Monday there on my way to Brussels, trying to raise funds for my Climate Parliament, and yesterday on my way home, to conduct interviews for a liaison person to serve the MEPs in London and to attend the Westminster parliamentary party's 'away day' session in Smith Square. In between I quizzed NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh-Rasmussen (former Danish Liberal prime minister) about India-Pakistan and Transnistria at Parliament's foreign affairs committee, spoke to visitors from the Dorset Youth Council and carried out more interviews, both for the MEPs' London based post and for a vacancy in my parliamentary office.

Our finance ministers met in Brussels this week with a heavily charged agenda. It may be worth my highlighting their discussion of the EU's 'broad economic policy guidelines' - still little known about outside Brussels, even 15 years after their introduction - under which banner they seek to co-ordinate the economic policies of the 27 different member states. A surprising degree of co-ordination exists since our prosperity depends essentially on the growth of trade within the EU's single market, which common policies facilitate.

Surprisingly, however, it was the meeting of the Agriculture and Fisheries ministers on Monday which committed the EU to finding 1.4 billion euros to pay for the cost overruns on the construction of ITER (International Thermonuclear Energy Reactor) in southern France. I am not an opponent of nuclear fusion but I think it crazy that we will allow so much money from the EU's budget to be eaten up in this that there will be little left for renewable energies; and I find it indecent that the decision was pushed through as an "A" point (ie without discussion) on the agenda of ministers who have no responsibilities in this area.

On Monday the 27 environment ministers met for informal discussions in Ghent and yesterday our home affairs ministers met informally in Brussels. In each case a Commissioner from the Liberal family led the discussions: environment commissioner Janez Potocnik (LD, Slovenia) tried to coax member states towards a co-ordinated policy on use of natural resources and home affairs commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom (LD, Sweden) sought agreement on a series of asylum-related proposals.

Today I address students in Cornwall at Redruth School and later at Bodmin College before travelling to Plymouth for a function there. Next week I clear my constituency office desk in advance of a holiday with my family. I will write again on 3 September.

Graham's blog Friday 9 July 2010

2010-07-09T10:00+01:00

It is now a year since the start of the European Parliament's current (2009-14) mandate; this week it was felt in two ways. First, MEPs - over half of whom are new - looked and sounded exhausted during the final plenary session before the summer break. Second, this week's votes were of considerable importance.

On Tuesday we voted to update legislation on novel foods, reiterating our opposition to meat or dairy products from cloned animals and calling for a moratorium on foods produced using nano-technology. We also voted to extend rights enjoyed by airline passengers to passengers in ship, rail and long-distance coach travel. On Wednesday we took an interim vote on setting up new financial supervisory authorities which should allow us to reach agreement next week with the 27 national governments in the Council of Ministers and adopt the new legislation formally in September. As one MEP put it, we can't stop banks going under, but we can take preventive measures and limit collateral damage. We also gave the go-ahead for the opening of negotiations on Iceland joining the EU. And yesterday we voted to approve the new regime governing the transfer of banking data to the US government to assist in fighting terrorism. We also endorsed the setting up of the EU's common diplomatic service, the European External Action Service, which will save taxpayers millions of pounds by pooling assets as well as political intelligence.

The European Parliament's new powers (under the Lisbon Treaty) have made it a more powerful institution. This week's votes (and the lobbying which accompanied them) underlined that. Next week there are a few tidying-up committee sessions in Brussels before the House rises on Friday (until 30 August).

On Monday my staff welcomed a group of visitors from Exeter's Clyst Vale school to Brussels while I welcomed a group from the Blue School in Wells to Strasbourg. Today I will welcome Education and Culture Commissioner Androula Vassiliou (Cyprus, LibDem) to Wells for the annual concert at Wells Cathedral school. Tomorrow I speak to Europarc rangers at the Mendip AONB in the morning and meet the Somerset Tourism Association in the afternoon.

I met Climate Change Commissioner Connie Hedegaard on Wednesday to plead for investment in the high voltage direct current electricity distribution network which I have written about in former newsletters. A European Commission report published on Monday shows that 60% of all new electricity generating capacity built in the EU in the last year is from renewables and renewable sources supplied 19.9% of all electricity consumed. Interconnectors to distribute this power would allow a vast expansion of investment. The French have established a consortium to lay cables under the Mediterranean Sea to allow for the import of solar-generated electricity from North Africa. We could see up to 1400 terawatt hours of electricity generated from renewables by 2020, which is nearly 40% of total demand.

So much happens in our Strasbourg weeks that there is a lot more I could report, but I'll leave it there for now. If you've any questions about the EU, either about what I've written or about anything else, please don't hesitate to ask.

Graham's blog Friday 2 July 2010

2010-07-02T10:00+01:00

The EP's Liberal group met in Bilbao this week, at the invitation of our colleagues in the Basque National Party. In addition to our normal business they were able to show us the achievements of the Basque country in economic and social development, which are impressive. To me, it showed all the arguments for effective regional government with democratic oversight and control, which added poignancy to the meeting I had with representatives of Gloucestershire First (in Brussels, on Thursday) at which we discussed the likely impact of the abolition of the RDAs and the establishment of LEPs on the south west of England's ability to achieve similar.

The decision by Moscow seven days ago to re-commence gas supplies to Belarus has come as a relief to those EU countries who receive supplies via Belarus and has again highlighted the EU's dangerous reliance on Russia and the transit countries for oil and gas. I am in London today talking to a group of business people about the potential for an electricity supergrid to cover the whole of EU territory. If we had an electricity distribution network as widespread as that for gas, the potential for development of renewable energies would be much greater. For south west England it would open up huge potential.

On Tuesday our Agriculture and Fisheries ministers met. The former discussed the authorisation of six varieties of genetically modified maize, but - as usual - found no qualified majority for approving it, which means that the European Commission will decide in principle and then allow individual member states to decide for themselves. But I sense that the pressure for approval at EU level of GM crops, particularly for animal feed, is growing. The president of the European Commission appears to be taking a more hard line approach in their favour. In principle Liberal Democrats should have nothing against the scientific progress implicit in GM foods: but the sinister activities of companies like Monsanto, which has offered ravaged Haiti 475 tonnes of GM seed (476,000 of maize and 2,000 of vegetable seed, to be more precise) with a 12 month terminator gene, thus making Haitian farmers dependent on buying successive years of crop seed, only increase suspicions of the industry.

Three of the UK's chickens are coming home to roost; the first is that we are in trouble with the European Commission for failing to comply with social security laws. The UK currently denies some social benefits to British citizens who are resident elsewhere in the EU. The European Commission is challenging this saying it is contrary to the principal of free movement. Second, the European Court of Justice in a preliminary ruling has upheld the Council's decision to refuse the UK the right to vote in matters relating to the EU's visa information system. Since the UK does not participate in this part of the Schengen convention, we have no right to try to influence the rules, they argue. Third, Britain's failure to teach foreign languages properly is now having a serious impact on our representation in European Civil Service posts. The UK has more than 12% of the EU population but fewer than 2% of junior staff in the EC. Our candidates simply do not have sufficient language skills. Foreign Secretary William Hague has had the gall to call for a relaxation of the rules for British candidates.

Israel's foreign minister has invited his European colleagues to visit Gaza to show them the humanitarian situation there. This has rightly been met with much scepticism. The European Parliament is refusing to approve a new protocol on trade with Israel, negotiated by the Commission and the Member State, until the humanitarian situation improves.

Tomorrow I will be in Exeter and South Devon at constituency functions, next week Parliament is in Strasbourg where we vote on, among other things, the controversial new banking regulation proposals.

Graham's blog Friday 25 June 2010

2010-06-25T09:00+01:00

Probably the most important EU development this week was the agreement in Madrid between the European Parliament and the European Council (which represents the governments of the 27 member states) on the setting up of the new European External Action Service (Diplomatic Corps). Provided for in the Lisbon Treaty, this body should be up and running by the end of the year. Parliament has won the right to full oversight of its activities, including scrutiny of its budget, which will be managed by the European Commission. At least 6 in every 10 of its officials will be permanent EU employees, which should ensure that their primary loyalty is to the EU as a whole rather than the member state from which they come. The agreement reached between the negotiators has now to be formally approved by each institution.

My week started with a meeting with Joseph Gallacher, new head of the SW region's Brussels office, who is naturally concerned for the future of the office since the SW RDA is its prime financier. Having worked hard with Ian White MEP back in the 1990s to have such an office established I would be sorry to see its future under threat; a very small staff there already achieves big things.

Herman van Rompuy, the President of the European Council, came to Parliament this week to report on last week's summit. He again had to face insults from Nigel Farage of the United Kingdom Independence Party. But he acquitted himself well in the debate and appears to be eclipsing somewhat Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso; Van Rompuy is certainly taking a hands-on approach to management of the European Council, securing difficult compromise agreements between the leaders of the 27 member states.

On Tuesday I met Chinese Ambassador Song Zhe with a small number of other MEPs working on combating climate change, to continue a dialogue which we started with him two months ago. China is taking more determined action against climate change than the EU; we 'talk the talk', but there is much evidence they are 'walking the walk'. Of course, it is easier if you have an authoritarian government! Democracies are too often run by crisis management, with serious decisions being taken only when it becomes very urgent to act. Action on climate change now occupies more of my time than any other matter.

That afternoon I attended a meeting of parliament's international trade committee for the first time ever. As chairman of the EP's delegation for relations with India I was invited to give my opinion of the soon-to-be-proposed EU-India free trade agreement. Both sides are keen to reach agreement and the potential for a substantial growth in trade is huge; but India refuses to include any clauses on civil, social or environmental policy, which means that MEPs are likely to say No. I urged colleagues to try at least to find another satisfactory forum for the regular discussion of such issues.

Today I am in Cornwall at a meeting of the region's MEPs with the County's economic managers; tomorrow in London for a meeting of the British Group of the Liberal International and on Sunday in Bath, entertaining a former higher education minister from Hungary. Next week the EP's Liberal group will meet in Bilbao, where we will learn about tensions in the Basque country.

The best news of my week is that John Harper publishing will publish the book I have written about the Liberal contribution to the building of the EU. My previously intended publisher is in financial difficulties.

Graham's blog Friday 18 June 2010

2010-06-18T09:00+01:00

Parliament has been in Strasbourg this week for formal debates and votes. One year on from the EP elections and five months after we approved the new European Commission, things are beginning to move again.

On Wednesday we voted to reject a proposal from the European Commission to exclude self-employed drivers from working time legislation. I did not, and nor did the majority of my colleagues; self employed drivers are already subject to health and safety regulations and to a maximum number of driving hours and we did not see the need to regulate them further. But the majority did. The Commission must now decide whether to withdraw the proposal altogether or to revise it.

We also voted at first reading on proposals from the European Commission on food labelling. We rejected their proposals for a 'traffic light' colour coding system for foods, though we called for more information on labels about the origin of foodstuffs. The British press have hailed this as a triumph for the food lobby; in fact the reality is far more nuanced.

The leaders of Parliament's four main political groups took the almost unprecedented step of holding a joint press conference on Tuesday to call for less 'intergovernmentalism' and more of the 'Community method'. This translates into a call for more EU solidarity and a greater commitment to allowing the European Commission to take the lead in policy development, particularly in matters of economic governance. But in Berlin, Paris, London and Rome there is currently little enthusiasm for this.

A good example of this was the outcome of a meeting of the 27 development aid ministers on Monday. They recommitted themselves to meeting the target of devoting 0.7% of GDP to development aid by 2015, though it is already clear that they will not meet the interim target of 0.56% by 2010: they are currently EUR 19 bn short. With the support of MEPs, Commissioner Piebalgs had suggested member states introduce binding national legislation on aid levels, but the idea got a frosty reception.

The heads of state and government met yesterday in Brussels; unusually it was for one day only. This European Council ('summit') meeting discussed mainly the state of the public finances in the 27 member countries. They were expected to give the green light to Iceland's application to join the EU - which will mean negotiations can start - and to take note of Serbia's.

Unusually, no meeting of the Liberal Democrat prime ministers will take place before the summit; this is a pity, since we won the recent election in The Netherlands and so have another LD PM. Since standing down from the leadership of Parliament's Liberal group, however, I no longer play a role in these in any case. I will be in Seville hosting a meeting of MPs from Europe and India about renewable energy, during which I will take them to visit the Albengoa solar thermal electricity generating plant.

Graham's blog Friday 11 June 2010

2010-06-11T14:00+01:00

Sorry not to have written for the last fortnight. The week of 24 May was a Parliamentary recess week, during which I represented Parliament's Liberal Group at a conference in Beijing at which 100 parliamentarians from across the EU met the Chinese Communist Party; and the week of 31 May was a UK school holiday week during which I sailed a 28' boat from Plymouth to Brest with my fifteen year old son.

This week I have been in Brussels and in Cyprus, the latter in my role as a member of Parliament's contact group for relations with Turkish Cypriots, who face widespread discrimination within the EU as a result of the failure of talks to re-unify the island.

Since I seek in this newsletter to provide information which is not normally found in the UK press or broadcast media, please allow me to summarise some of the developments of the past three weeks in Brussels.

On migration, there have been further talks among ministers to improve the handling of unaccompanied children arriving illegally in the EU, sometimes the victims of sex-trafficking. The EU's external borders co-operation agency, Frontex, has just celebrated its fifth anniversary. As a result of better co-operation between the EU and the countries of origin or transit, the numbers of people seeking to migrate illegally to the EU have fallen, though to some extent we have simply increased the pressure of migration elsewhere.

On the economy, readers of the UK press will know that much of the attention of economy and finance ministers, who met on Monday of this week, is still taken up with the challenges of sovereign debt (eg Greece) and private debt (recapitalisation of the banks), to say nothing of new rules on banking supervision. The outlook is a little better than it was. EU solidarity seems to have worked in calming the sovereign debt markets, though Portugal has just had to pay heavily for a new tranche of borrowing. Governments have taken seriously the challenge of cutting public debt and improving their balances of payments; a state aid scoreboard published by the Commission at the end of May shows that guarantee umbrellas for banks seem to have worked, with only about one-tenth of the funds provided actually having been called on, and the EU's gradual emergence from recession is confirmed in the latest unemployment statistics, which show a slight but not horrific rise in unemployed people from March to April to an average of just over 10% of the workforce. (I do not wish to sound unconcerned; every case of a person without a job should and does worry MEPs.)

At the European Commission, three of the EU's women Commissioners have been particularly active: Neelie Kroes (NL, LibDem) has presented her plans for the EU's digital agenda (see previous newsletter) to national government ministers in Council and to MEPs in Parliament's education and culture committee. The MEPs reacted by stressing the need for copyright protection, security on the internet and overcoming the digital divide between young and old. Cecilia Malmstrom (S, LibDem) has provisionally sealed a deal with the US authorities on the sharing of banking data in the fight against terrorism; it will need to be agreed to by ministers and MEPs. Cecilia has also persuaded the 27 interior ministers finally to agree to the Commission's proposals to guarantee defendants in legal proceedings abroad the right to interpretation and translation. And Androulla Vassiliou (CY, LibDem) has unveiled a major study on gender inequality in education across the EU. Commissioner Vassiliou, who is in charge of education and culture, has also kindly accepted an invitation to visit Wells Cathedral School next month to look at their pioneering work as one of the EU's premier music schools. (Fortunately, the head teacher there is a woman.)

In the Council of Ministers, the 27 foreign ministers met in Sarajevo on 2 June with their counterparts from the western Balkan countries. Though no early perspective of EU membership is on the cards for these countries, much is being done to help them to improve their government and make it easier for their citizens to get visas to EU countries. The European Council meeting next week (heads of state and government summit) is expected however to discuss Iceland's application for EU membership.

Agriculture ministers met in Spain last week to discuss the future of the CAP and environment ministers are meeting today to discuss options for increasing from 20% to 30% the EU's emissions reduction target over the coming ten years.

In Parliament, the transport committee has approved draft laws extending to bus, coach and boat passengers the protection already offered to airline and railway passengers against cancellations and delays to services. And our foreign affairs committee sent first the Iranian foreign minister and then the Israeli ambassador to the EU away with fleas in their ears about their countries' recent behaviour.

Two pieces of very good news to end on. First, the European Commission has proposed a simplification of the rules governing EU grants, long overdue, which would cut a lot of red tape for recipients of grants below EUR 50,000. Second, when Hungary appealed on 25 May for 2 million sandbags to help combat flooding it had almost immediate offers from other EU countries of 2.12 million. The European Civil Protection Mechanism works!

I will be in Taunton tomorrow at a Lib Dem general election debrief and in Parliament in Strasbourg next week, from where I will report next Friday.

Graham's blog Friday 21 May 2009

2010-05-21T00:00+01:00

At the Party's special conference in Birmingham last Sunday to debate the new governing coalition I was truly proud to be a Liberal Democrat. We had a first class debate about the challenges ahead; and of over 2000 members present only a dozen voted against the coalition agreement. We may have needed, as I suggested to delegates, 'the longest preparatory process in political history' (since David Steel told us in 1981 to go back to our constituencies and prepare for government); but we got there.

The start to my week was again made a misery by volcanic ash, which closed Birmingham airport on Sunday night just before I was due to leave and Bristol at 6 am on Monday at my second attempt.

One good piece of news came through on Monday about the much-maligned Common Fisheries Policy when the Commission published figures showing that restrictions on fishing activity have allowed stocks of eleven different species of fish to recover. Before you jump for joy, however, it also reported that most stocks continue to be over-fished.

In Strasbourg MEPs voted to delay consideration of a draft directive on whether to set maximum working hours for self-employed coach and lorry drivers; they are covered by tachographs anyway so I intended to vote against: but we voted to call on the 27 Social Affairs ministers to extend maternity and sickness leave rights to women who are self employed and assisting self-employed partners, sometimes currently overlooked by legislation. We also approved draft directives updating the laws on energy performance in buildings (from 2020 they will have to produce as much energy as they consume) and energy labelling of appliances (extended to cover industrial appliances such as vending machines).

Parliament also gave its opinion on reform of the CAP, voting to approve a report by Tory MEP Richard Ashworth (one of the sensible ones) calling for payments to be made only to working farmers and for reporting requirements to be made less onerous.

At the European Commission our Liberal Democrat women Commissioners have started to show their mettle. Last week Maire Geoghegan-Quinn (Research, Innovation and Science Commissioner) outlined her plans for a new EU research and innovation strategy; the details will be published in the autumn. And this week the Commissioner responsible for the Digital Agenda, Neelie Kroes, unveiled plans to make the benefits of the digital era available to many more people by creating a digital market, improving broadband access and boosting inter-operability of systems and software. I met Culture Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou on Wednesday, who is doing wonders in supporting the EU's film industry, and invited her to visit Wells Cathedral School.

I also met Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fule for a briefing on Moldova; I am Parliament's 'rapporteur' for the country and will visit in three weeks' time.

Yesterday I welcomed pupils from Woodroffe School in Lyme Regis to Strasbourg. A dynamic young French teacher there is doing great work enthusing them about the EU. This morning I visit the Taunton Association for Homeless People. This afternoon I attend the wedding of my office manager Jackie Frost (she has even prepared me my standard 'visit sheet' for the occasion!). Tomorrow I attend the regional executive committee of the western counties Liberal Democrats before travelling to Heathrow for a visit to Beijing, where I will represent the EP's Liberal group at a conference.

Next week Parliament is in recess and the week after (UK school holiday week) I will be on holiday, so I will write again on 11 June.

Graham's blog Friday 14 May 2010

2010-05-14T12:00+01:00

The beginning of my week was dominated by the suspense involved in the outcome of two series of late night meetings. As with all the best stories, both had happy outcomes. The EU's finance ministers agreed in the early hours of Monday morning on a EUR 750 bn standby package to support the euro against the international speculators. And at around the same time the UK's Liberal Democrat MPs agreed nem con to the proposed coalition agreement with the Conservatives. In neither case were the circumstances those we would have chosen; yet in both cases imaginative leadership and a shared sense of responsibility led us to a successful conclusion.

I have commented on the Greek debt situation in previous newsletters, so let me dwell now on the UK's coalition agreement from an EU perspective. William Hague as foreign secretary and a commitment not to join the euro in the lifetime of this parliament are hard to swallow for a Liberal Democrat; but the Tories' agreement to 'positive participation in the EU' and to continue to participate in the EU's justice and home affairs co-operation must be equally hard for them. What I admire in the coalition agreement drawn up by Clegg and Cameron is that it involves genuine compromise. With goodwill and foresight it can be made to work.

Otherwise, it was a busy week for the EU's three main institutions. In Council, the EU's development aid ministers met on Monday and approved plans for food security and humanitarian food aid in developing countries. High world food prices remain a serious threat to survival. More money will be made available for programmes to tackle malnutrition, support and train small scale farmers and fund programmes for crop research such as those I saw on a recent visit to ICRISAT (International Crop Research Insitute for the Semi Arid Tropics) in India. They also discussed how to meet the Millenium Research Goals in health care, particularly combating infant mortality and improving maternal health, and signed off new plans.

European Council President Herman van Rompuy came before Parliament's Liberal Group this week and acquitted himself well. He may look as if he has been pulled through a hedge backwards, but he has a sharp brain. We quizzed him mainly about the turmoil in the money markets.

At the Commission this week there was tough talking. A series of infringement procedures was launched on Wednesday against member states which fail to abide by the rules they have set at EU level in areas such as public procurement, taxation, the environment and consumer protection. France in particular has been instructed to recover unjustified state aid paid to over 200 businesses.

Apart from the demands of French, German and Italian TV and radio for comment on the UK election outcome, my week was marked by meetings with the team from Moldova negotiating the new Association Agreement with the EU. They are pushing hard for rapid progress; and while there are no major obstacles I felt obliged to warn them not to court us with too much ardour. The EU is committed to helping the new democratic government which ousted the Communists a year ago, but given the sensitive security issues in Transnistria, where there is still a Russian presence, we need to tread carefully.

I will be working in my constituency office today, at home tomorrow and at the Party's special conference in Birmingham on Sunday to support the coalition agreement with the Conservatives. I have never taken the view that Liberal Democrats are closer to Labour: if we sup with either we should - as with the devil - choose a long spoon.

Graham's blog Friday 7 May 2010

2010-05-07T09:00+01:00

One of the frustrations of being elected to a supra-national parliament is that business does not grind to a halt simply because one of the twenty-seven member states has a national parliamentary election. So although I have been been as active as I could reasonably hope to be - campaigning in West Dorset, South East Cornwall, Newquay and St Austell, East Devon, Chippenham, Gloucester, Wells, Bridgwater, Somerton and Frome and Bristol NorthWest - I have been bogged down too much in European Parliamentary duties such as leading a visit of the delegation I chair to India, having to attend meetings to do with Moldova (I am Parliament's rapporteur for the new agreement the EU hopes soon to sign with Moldova), chairing meetings of the all-party renewable energy super grid group, etc: and, this week, voting on issues as diverse as animal welfare and the accounts of the EU's executive agencies.

Nonetheless I was pleased to be home yesterday to help get voters to the polling stations and to follow the results coming in from one of the most interesting general election campaigns in recent history. If there is one clear winner, it is the case for reform of the UK's antiquated and unjust voting system.

Parliament was addressed by US Vice President Joe Biden, who pleaded for our help in sharing information about airline passengers in the light of the revelation that the Pakistani-American man who planted a bomb in New York's Times Square managed to board a flight to Dubai and thus almost got away. (Parliament had postponed the previous day a vote on the new plan for the sharing of airline passenger name recognition data until after the discussions which Vice President Biden is having with Commission and Council this week.)

I was pleased to welcome to Brussels this week Susan Brownlow, new Director of the Combined Universities in Cornwall, who was over to speak at a conference on education.

There was good news this week for people affected by flight delays due to volcanic ash who are trying to secure their rights to compensation from airlines. Consumer rights in this case have been spelt out on the internet together with a draft pro-forma letter of complaint: these can be found on the European Consumer Centre website: http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/ecc/index_en.htm. When our members states' transport ministers met on Tuesday they called for policies to accelerate the move to a 'Single European Sky' so that co-ordination among air traffic authorities and a common approach to the management of risks such as volcanic ash - especially in the management of air traffic flows - will be better in future.

There was bad news for those who believe the EU can take a global lead in the development of renewable energy technologies. The Commissioner for climate change revealed that China has spent US$ 230 billion in green investment, the USA US$ 80 billion and the EU only US$ 25 billion thus far. All the more reason for Barroso to embrace the European Climate Foundation's remarkable study on decarbonisation of the EU's economy as the Union's next 'big idea'. But I fear he lacks the required sense of urgency. Addressing Parliament about jobs and growth on Wednesday he said relatively little about how decarbonising the economy can help stimulate investment and create a net growth in employment.

By the time you read this we may have all the general election results in. Whatever the final outcome, the UK's membership of the EU looks set - regrettably - to remain a thorny issue.

Graham's blog Thursday 22 April 2010

2010-04-22T10:30+01:00

Parliament met in Strasbourg this week and has been very quiet indeed. No votes, an agenda which finishes formally on Wednesday evening, and the only MEPs present being those who live within easy car or train distance or those (like me) who were unable to get home at the end of last week.

There is a row going on between Parliament and the Council of Ministers, the two 'houses' of the EU's legislature, about the setting up of the new European External Action Service. This is the EU's diplomatic service, agreed by the 27 heads of state and government in the Treaty of Lisbon. It centres around the responsibility for the appointment of deputies to the EU's foreign minister, Cathy Ashton, and what the role of those deputies should be. I've no doubt it will ne resolved, but Parliament will want to make sure we vet any appointees.

The main business this week was the presentation by Commission President Barroso of the European Commission's work programme for 2010. This is the equivalent of the Queen's Speech at Westminster but without the frippery of Black Rod having to knock three times on our door and all the other druidic nonsense which passes for a British Constitution. As you might expect, the emphasis is on getting the economy back on track, regulating the banks more effectively and endeavouring to prevent any future near defaults such as that we are seeing with Greece. There is also a fair amount on energy policy; and I got a good reply from Barroso when I asked him at Question Time on Tuesday his view of the European Climate Foundation's decarbonisation road map (see last week's newsletter or go to www.roadmap2050.eu).

The item which dominated other business (many debates were more important but less urgent) was the travel chaos caused by the cloud of volcanic ash. People ask why "Europe" does not have its act together. Answer: because air traffic control is a matter in which the member states have never wanted to give the EU any legal powers, linked as it is to defence and "national sovereignty". That is why a strike of air traffic controllers in any one country can cause misery just as easily as an Icelandic volcano. Nonetheless, transport ministers 'met' by videoconference on Monday and agreed to ease the restrictions and life seems gradually to be returning to normal, though the question few seem to ask is why we allow 28,000 flights on an average weekday. More investment in high speed rail and broadband connectivity is urgently needed.

I hope to get back to the UK today and to be campaigning tomorrow in Gloucester (morning) and North Devon (afternoon). On Saturday I'll be in Chippenham: if you want to help us elect a Liberal Democrat government, come and join me there. We've a good chance of winning our first seat in Wiltshire. Come along to the Chippenham LibDem office.