Graham's blog entry 2nd November 2006

Published on Thu 2nd Nov 2006

Sorry you received no weekly letter last week. I flew from Strasbourg to Istanbul rather than back to Bristol, and though I'd intended to write on the flight, I needed all the time to read my briefs for Turkey and work on the speeches I was to make there. So, better late than never, here is last week's letter and a few thoughts since, though the European Parliament is in recess this week.

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My week and the EU's week were dominated by two countries: Russia and Turkey. The united stand taken by EU member states towards dinner guest President Putin at the EU summit was widely praised in Parliament. Such uncommon unity came as a great relief. The murder of journalist Anna Politikovskaya, the 25th journalist to be murdered since Putin took over, helped to concentrate minds. Putin agreed to a formal treaty on co-operation in energy and other matters which can now be worked out at this month's EU-Russia summit. He also went home with a flea in his ear.

Turkey hit the headlines at the end of last week and the beginning of this week for its failure to make progress in the reforms needed for EU membership. The European Commission is due to report on progress shortly and a copy of the draft report was leaked to FT Deutschland, the German language sister-paper of the Financial Times. It shows very mixed progress. Some countries would find it convenient to suspend the talks, as I warned my Turkish hosts over the weekend.

I was in Istanbul to address a conference of TUSKON, the Turkish confederation of small and medium sized enterprises, and for an editorial conference and interview with Zaman, a newspaper founded a month after The Independent and with a very similar political line.

I had not previously visited the city, other than to change aeroplanes, though I've been to the capital Ankara on three occasions and to the south coast on holiday. I was struck by how 'western' Istanbul has become, despite the huge influx of people from eastern Turkey looking for work and a share of their 'freedom'; like small town Americans flocking to New York or Dick Whittingtons heading south to London. I was also hugely impressed by the cultural wealth of the city which bridges Europe and Asia. Istanbul is not Turkey: but if it is what Turkey aspires to be then Turkey belongs in the EU. I'll be back in Turkey next week, to address the conference of Prime Minister Erdogan's AK Party in Ankara. I hope they will speed up the process of modernisation of the country.

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Parliament voted on a number of budgetary issues last week. In particular we voted to prevent the UK government cutting subsidies to English farmers even further through a device called 'voluntary modulation'. I expect Labour MEPs voted in favour. But we've just introduced a major change in farm spending with the Single Farm Payment and the UK Treasury was letting the blood run to its head.

We also voted to stop EU member states nationalising the LIFE Plus programme. This relatively small financial instrument (EUR 19 bn over six years), designed to promote good environmental practice, has been run successfully by the Commission. The member states want the power to decide how 80% of the money is spent, cutting the Commission out of the process. We said No. The matter will now go to 'conciliation', which means there will need to be a compromise.

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MEPs were disturbed that on 24th October the European Court of Auditors refused, for the 12th consecutive year, to sign off the EU's accounts. The main reason is that national finance ministers will not guarantee the proper spending within, and control of spending by, the member states. In fact, the Court recognised that a lot of progress has been made in financial control systems. It also deems the 2005 accounts accurately to reflect the financial situation of the EU. However, the auditors identify overpayments to farmers in Spain, Italy and Greece.

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All imports of long grain rice from the USA will soon be subject to testing for unauthorised GMOs and the costs of the testing will be borne by American exporters, following the discovery two months ago of traces of the genetically engineered rice LL 601 manufactured by Beyer in rice deliveries which had been certified by the exporters to be GM free. The EU's standing committee on the food chain and animal health has considerable powers and has decided to use them.

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Should the UK have placed restrictions on workers from Bulgaria and Romania coming to seek work after the two countries join the EU on 1 January? I think not, given that there are jobs to be filled - especially in farming and tourism here in the South West - and given that in any case most Romanians will go to Italy and Spain because they find the languages easier. But there is genuine concern at Westminster that we have taken more than our fair share of workers from the new member states since some countries have not yet opened their labour markets. At the very least we need to do some tough talking with the closed-border Germans and Austrians.

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I spoke twice in Parliament last week, on the peace process in Spain and on the outcome of the EU summit in Lahti. My speeches can be found on my website, www.grahamwatsonmep.org . Though I spent last weekend in Istanbul I will be this Friday at the Somerton and Frome constituency supper and on Saturday at the Gloucestershire LD conference at County Hall. There are seven EP working weeks till Christmas and I welcome invitations to constituency functions.