Graham's blog entry 15th December 2006

Written by Graham Watsoin MEP on Fri 15th Dec 2006

As far as the British press is concerned, the main event of this week in the European Parliament was the vote to agree plans for a driving licence valid across the EU. I was challenged on BBC Radio Cornwall to justify this 'appalling intrusion' of the EU into our lives: surely we could not accept a plastic card with a microchip holding our personal details and needing to be renewed every ten years?! I patiently pointed out that the UK's police national computer currently has access to all these details anyway and that the only data to be stored at EU level is a register of convictions for driving offences: that at EU level there is data protection legislation governing how the data can be handled; that criminals banned from driving in one country now frequently go to another EU country, take a driving test and gain a licence which means they can drive again across the EU without fear of detection; and that the renewal every ten years is to prevent drivers with deteriorating eyesight or other health impediment becoming a danger to public safety. But would Cornwall's voters believe me? My Tory opponent did not think so, for he took the easy option of attacking Brussels and all its works.

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Parliament also voted this week to approve the REACH (Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of CHemicals) directive, a major piece of environmental law on which my colleague Chris Davies MEP did sterling work: to adopt a first reading position on the renewal of television laws covering advertising and protection of children; and to agree next year's EU budget.

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Our UK leader Sir Menzies Campbell made a speech on the EU on Tuesday at the Centre for European Reform, calling for more EU co-operation in foreign and security policy. The text is almost certainly on the party's website, http://www.libdems.org.uk/. He included the interesting idea of an audit of the EU's powers; I'm not sure what he means, but if we are calling for another inter-governmental conference (before governments have decided how to proceed with the Constitutional Treaty they've all signed, but only 19 have ratified), we ought to say so.

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An innovation in my Group's communications policy means that masochists the world over can now see my speech welcoming the new Commissioners from Bulgaria and Romania (after we voted to approve them on Tuesday) 'live' on our website. For readers with nothing better to do the web address is http://www.alde.eu/.

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Early on Wednesday morning I left Strasbourg with my counterparts from the European People's Party, European Socialist Party and Greens to fly to Berlin, where German TV channel ZDF was broadcasting a 90 minute programme involving Angela Merkel, Jose Manuel Barroso and the four of us about Germany's six-month Presidency of the EU (which starts in January). It was a serious look at the challenges facing the EU and what Germany could do to help resolve them. Perhaps not compelling viewing, but crisp and informative. I cannot recall (or, sadly, even imagine) the BBC doing anything similar when Britain held the EU Presidency last year.

I got together with UK MEPs from the other parties, however, to throw a drinks party in Strasbourg that evening for British TV journalist Jim Gibbons. Jim celebrates twenty years of freelance reporting of the European Parliament and the work of MEPs and is remarkably successful at getting his material on to UK commercial TV stations. He normally interviews us in Brussels or Strasbourg, but I was able to relate to our guests the fond memory of having traipsed around a Somerset farmyard with him in my first year as a MEP, up to our knees in what could only charitably be described as mud, discussing milk quota.

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It being this time of the year I welcomed my colleagues and our staff to the ALDE Group's Christmas Party on Wednesday night. 250 people - the largest crowd we've ever had - came along to what was a really good party. But beyond it, the Group I lead is much nastier these days. Why? Because we're twice as big as when I took over and more than twice as powerful. And that is the nature of power.

Having missed Wednesday's votes to be in Berlin (we got back to Strasbourg just in time for the pre-summit parliamentary debate at 4 pm) I missed Thursday's votes because of the summit, hurrying back to Brussels to attend the Liberal Prime Ministers' co-ordination lunch. With Finland holding the EU Presidency we have Liberal Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen chairing the summit, giving us a rare opportunity to set the agenda of our heads of state and government. I imagine there will be little UK media interest in the event because there's no row to report, but in typical Finnish style the lack of fanfare hid a lot of modest progress. Migration, energy and EU enlargement were all discussed and consensus on policy responses was advanced. As Vanhanen returns to the land of Santa Claus for Christmas he should allow himself the satisfaction of a job well done. (In fact he'll be back in Brussels on Monday to report formally to the EP on the outcome of the summit. I'll be there to respond and will then go back to Berlin with my fellow Group leaders for meetings with German ministers. But since I'll not write next week I can at least give the impression that we're packing up for Christmas.)

Happy Christmas to you. I'll write again on 12 January.