Graham's blog entry 2nd February 2007

Published on Fri 2nd Feb 2007

As I feared, the European Commissioners who wanted to force motor vehicle manufacturers to design engines with much lower car exhaust emissions lost out to the Conservatives. Instead, the emphasis will be put on producing fuels of higher quality, reducing emissions that way. The trouble is that a petrol-biofuel mix means a much bigger demand for biofuels, involving greater imports of bio-diesel from countries which are cutting down great swathes of rainforest to plant biofuel crops.

In reply to statements by Commission and Council on Wednesday I made this point, attacking German car manufacturers for their fierce lobby against the design of more efficient engines. I reminded them of Konrad Adenauer's dictum 'God placed limits on man's reason. But not on his stupidity.'

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If you ever fancy watching a debate in the European Parliament from the comfort of your living room you may be interested to know that since early last year all European Parliament debates have been web-streamed. Any internet user can watch EP debates live or recorded; they are stored for about ten months, for those who want to look back. The website address is http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sce/server/internet/home_page/sce_home_page_01.jsp (Perhaps I should fear that the ability to access a live recording might hit sales of my latest book, a selection of recent speeches called 'The Power of Speech'. Seriously, however, I doubt it. But there are still copies available from my constituency office at the ridiculously reasonable price of just ten quid including p&p and there's an order form on my website www.grahamwatsonmep.org.!)

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On Tuesday I was in Helsinki to see the Finnish Prime Minister (a Lib Dem)

and opposition leaders. I may have gone over the top in my remarks about Russia at a press conference. In reply to questions, I criticised the ban preventing our Liberal sister party Yabloko from contesting the local elections in St Petersburg and the Mayor of Moscow's ban on a gay pride march, saying that Russia might turn out to be more nasty and totalitarian than China. In a country very sensitive about Russia it made headlines the following day; though by that time I was safely back in Brussels!

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My trip to Helsinki meant that I missed Mr Jones of Plymouth Senior Citizens Forum, who I had assisted in taking a case to the EP's Petitions Committee about the difference in basic pensions paid to men and women. Because women often have career breaks for childbirth and rearing and usually retire earlier, the average basic pension for a woman in the UK is only forty nine pounds and fifteen pence a week. For a man it is eighty two pounds and five pence. This situation is utterly indefensible and I'm pleased that my colleagues on the committee agreed to refer the petition to the Women's Rights Committee for further consideration.

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Désirée Oen, who has been the head of my private office in Brussels for the five years I've led my Group, left me this week to work for Commissioner Siim Kallas, Vice President of the European Commission. I'm pleased for her: it's a good promotion. She has been a superb colleague and I will miss her dearly. The greatest compliment one can pay anybody is that when they leave they are succeeded by not one but two people: so Philip Drauz becomes my new head of office and Brenda Ramjee my new secretary. My constituency office is still well served by office manager Laura Pike, caseworker Andrew Dunne and assistant Nicola Palmer.

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Yesterday morning I went with our MP for Teignbridge, Richard Younger-Ross, to see EU transport Commissioner Jacques Barrot about the beaching of the MSC Napoli in Lyme Bay. We pressed the Commissioner to investigate why the ship was allowed to sail from Antwerp heavily laden when a major storm was forecast; why she was not towed to Cherbourg or Falmouth, much closer to where she got into trouble; and how she came to be licensed when the company which owns her has such a poor record of ship accidents. SW Tory MEP Neil Parish came out last week calling for financial compensation for the region from the EU's Solidarity Fund, which is a daft idea, first because the Solidarity Fund was designed to help in the case of job losses due to globalization of the economy and second because the minimum threshold for payouts is 3.4 billion euros! Ricky and I managed to establish however that if the UK government wishes to seek compensation for any SW businesses affected, it could make an application for money from the EU's structural funds.

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Giles Chichester MEP has lost his chairmanship of the European Parliament's powerful Industry Committee. The Tories have got scant compensation in being given the Agriculture committee, which Chichester's fellow SW MEP Neil Parish will chair, but this committee has only advisory powers. Such is the result of David Cameron's skilful diplomacy on EU issues!

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Today I was interviewed on BBC Radio Cornwall at 8.30. I'll be speaking to pupils at Bishop Wordsworth's School in Salisbury at 10.30 and attending the Lib Dem Team for Somerset meeting this afternoon. This evening I'll be in North Somerset (formerly Woodspring) Constituency, just south of Bristol, for their annual dinner.