Graham's blog entry 8th December 2006

Published on Fri 8th Dec 2006

Parliament's week opened with a visit from over 300 national MPs, drawn from all 25 member states, to discuss how to make progress in a situation where 16 countries have ratified the EU's Constitution, two have rejected it in referendums and seven have postponed or suspended ratification. (Britain, of course, has pretended that the issue has gone away. As so often, we are wrong: and Blair knows it, but it suited his purposes.) Symbolically, Finland's parliament voted to ratify the Constitution while we were meeting in Brussels.

This was the second such conference and some progress was made. A consensus seems to be emerging that when Germany takes over the chair of the Council of Ministers in January they will set a timetable for agreement on how to proceed. And in a declaration to be signed by all heads of government at the EU's 50th anniversary celebrations in March they will set out why the EU exists and what values underlie European co-operation.

For my speech at the conference, see:

http://www.grahamwatsonmep.org/speeches/91.html

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The Justice and Home Affairs ministers met on Monday and agreed that insufficient progress has been made in fighting crime. However they recommended to the heads of state and government at next week's European Council meeting (EU summit) not to drop the national veto for policy-making in this area: which means they will continue to fail to make progress. If any one country can veto any measure, no difficult decision is ever taken. More usefully, they signed off a measure which means that when passing sentence, judges can take into account past criminal convictions in other member states; in most member states they have not hitherto. A European index of criminal convictions is planned.

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On Tuesday I hosted a visit to Parliament of thirty or more young people with the Gloucestershire Youth Service. They came together with other young people from Italy and Austria. We talked about how the EU works and what it does for young people. Their questions were more perceptive than many I get from more mature groups of people, perhaps because the perspective of those brought up in the electronic age is often much wider.

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On Wednesday the Commission agreed to publish a Green Paper on the future of the EU's Galileo satellite system. There will now be a period of consultation about the uses to which it might be put.

That afternoon I went to Paris at the invitation of UK Ambassador Sir John Holmes to give a lecture in their "EU at Fifty" series. John Major was their last speaker; John Monks will be the next. Being sandwiched between a Tory and a Trade Unionist I made an unashamedly Liberal Internationalist speech, for the text of my speech please see:

http://www.grahamwatsonmep.org/speeches/90.html

But I confess that my main reason for going was the opportunity to stay overnight in Britain's most glamorous overseas property, one of only two remaining 18th century buildings between the Champs Elysee and the Faubourg St Honore (the other is the Elysee Palace). Addressing my audience in The Ballroom with The Throne Room open behind me and sleeping in a four poster bed in a room once used by Napoleon's sister and subsequently by the Duke of Wellington was too good an opportunity to miss.

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On Thursday I spoke to East Asian studies students at Bristol University and today I attend the annual meeting of the University's Court (my first in five years of membership). Tomorrow I meet Exeter Lib Dems for afternoon tea in the marvellous Chapel House by the Cathedral before hosting a Pizza and Politics evening in Totnes Constituency for Baroness Ros Scott. It being this time of year I will spend Sunday signing a large number of Christmas cards.