Graham's blog entry 20th October 2006

Published on Fri 20th Oct 2006

One major bill and one action plan came out of the European Commission this week. The proposal to open up the rest of the postal service to competition (ie. extending competition to letters weighing less than 50 grammes) was agreed by the Commission and announced by Commissioner McCreevy on Wednesday. (I wrote an article for a French newspaper pointing out that it is not liberalisation which leads to the post office closures now feared across France, but lack of government imagination about the role of the post office.) The action plan, on energy efficiency, follows on from the 2004 Green Paper which seeks a 20% cut in primary energy consumption by 2020 and seeks to mobilise citizens, business, the energy industry and the public sector to achieve this. It aims to save the equivalent of 390 million tonnes of oil each year. It comes up for review in 2009, but in my view we will have to make it more radical sooner as the evidence of climate change mounts.

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After six hours of talks late into the night on Tuesday, MEPs agreed with the national governments a new directive on pollution of water in underground acquifers (updating directives agreed in 1980 and 2000). It does not set a single standard for all countries except where nitrates and pesticides are concerned. Parliament succeeded in persuading member states to agree to take measures to prevent cyanide, arsenic and biocides from entering these water sources. The deal must now go to a vote on the floor of our House and in the Council of Ministers.

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My week was concerned mainly with business and trade and preparing for today's EU summit in Lahti where energy is on the agenda. On Tuesday I took part in a televised panel discussion at the UNICE (European CBI) conference and on Wednesday I addressed a trade seminar organised by a major law firm, pointing out how trade is an essential part of any development aid strategy. EU foreign affairs and development ministers had met in Luxembourg two days earlier and committed themselves to making good their December 2005 promise to raise EU financial aid to EUR 2 billion a year by 2010 (a billion euros from the EU budget and another billion from the member states). Should we believe these promises any more than the promises made in the 1970s, 80s and 90s? I don't know, but I can say that our Liberal colleague and development aid Commissioner Louis Michel is working far harder than any of his predecessors in my time in Brussels to make them come true.

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I will not be in Finland today for the summit but I have published in the country's major newspaper an open letter to Vladimir Putin, who will attend as a dinner guest, calling on him to move his country back towards democracy if he wants western investment. I refer to the 21 journalists murdered since he became President, the jailing of Mikhail Khodorkovsky for financing Russia's Yabloko Liberal Party and the illegal appropriation of assets by Gazprom. The EU is dependent on Russian oil and gas, but Putin does not have us over a barrel (if you'll excuse the pun); Russia is equally dependent on our purchases. I hope our heads of state and government will be robust with him.

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On Wednesday I had an unexpected but very welcome lunch with Madeleine Allbright, former US Secretary of State. Still a bundle of energy, she now heads the Democratic National Institute for International Affairs, which keeps in touch with all three major EU political families on behalf of the Democratic Party. She invited nine MEPs to discuss with her how we can work together in democracy promotion, particularly if the Democrats win back power in the USA.

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On Thursday I went to London for a meeting with MPs and Lords about EU action. That these meetings take place at all reflects a growing acceptance at Westminster of EU governance. Today - Friday - I will be in Exeter for the SW regional assembly, then in Ivybridge to talk to the school and finally in Torbay for the Lib Dem supper. Tomorrow I address the Italian Republicans' annual conference in Rome and on Sunday an Italian government conference on regional policy.