Graham's blog entry 20th April 2007

Published on Fri 20th Apr 2007

My week started at 0045 hrs on Monday when I arrived at a hotel in Bucharest. Later the same morning I led the national delegation leaders from my Parliamentary Group in meetings with Prime Minister Calin Tariceanu (Liberal) and his new cabinet (85% Liberal, 15% Hungarian minority party); and Conservative Party leader Dan Voiculescu and his senior colleagues. The Conservative Party, despite its name, sends its two MEPs to my Group and they fit in perfectly well (their party was formerly called the Humanist Party, which is a better description of their views).

Since Prime Minister Tariceanu kicked the Democratic Party (they are the ones who ally with British Conservatives) out of his coalition cabinet a few weeks ago, government in Romania has been more serene. But the formation of a new cabinet meant I lost one of my best deputy leaders, Adrian Ciorianu, recalled home to become Foreign Minister; and another good MEP, Ovidiu Silaghi, who has become Minister for Small Businesses.

Increasingly, however, we get used to losing MEPs to ministerial positions when their parties are in government at home. While I was in Bucharest, news reached me that one of my Finnish colleagues had become Minister for Foreign Trade, and that a former Finnish colleague had become EU Affairs Minister in the new Finnish government, bringing the number of EU Affairs Ministers across Europe who were recently Lib Dem MEPs to three.

We left Bucharest for Timisoara, to speak to university and business audiences there, but our visit was overshadowed by a parliamentary vote due two days later on a Socialist motion to impeach Romania's President for overstepping his constitutional powers. President Basescu is the leader of the Democratic Party and a controversial character at the best of times, so I was not surprised to be hauled away from a lunch in Brussels on Thursday to comment on the decision - by a large majority of MPs - to impeach.

Back in Brussels I gave a press briefing at which I commented on Blair's appearance with the Dutch PM to oppose any re-working of the EU Constitution. Both said they want just minor changes to the current EU Treaties. Quite apart from the fact that both signed this constitution just two years ago, they know that minor changes will not be enough to make the EU work properly. Their problem is their fear of going out and explaining to people in a referendum that national governments can no longer achieve on their own the things their people want and that more EU co-operation is therefore needed. Blair's announcement subsequently that he has dropped the idea of a referendum is hardly a surprise. But he owes us at least a proper public debate.

I fear another crisis looms, since it looks as if by the end of the year 24 or 25 countries will have agreed to ratify the EU Constitution with very few changes to the text. If the UK decides it cannot stomach more EU co-operation, perhaps it will then be time for an amicable divorce. I would not wish to see it, for I believe it would much weaken Britain: but we cannot go on holding back continental countries who wish to set up a democratic procedure to govern decisions taken at EU level (which is what the Constitution does).

On Thursday I hosted a cross-party press conference to draw attention to the plight of eight Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor who've been on death row in Libya for over eight years, held in appalling conditions after having been brutally tortured. Now in the EU, Bulgarians have the right to expect the same level of solidarity in such a case as Britain got for its recent naval prisoners in Iran or France or Italy for journalists taken hostage in the wider Middle East.

Readers of The Times may have been surprised to read that I criticised a decision to deepen European co-operation. The Justice and Home Affairs Ministers, meeting in Brussels yesterday and today, decided to make holocaust denial a criminal offence carrying a prison sentence of at least a year in all member states. The matter will come to the European Parliament for our opinion, but we cannot (under current powers) stop them. The measure does however contain a clause which might allow the UK to continue with its current legal provisions, but I fear that once we classify any historical act as 'undeniable' we will face pressure to add other atrocities or alleged atrocities to the list and that free enquiry could be undermined.

A remarkable report from the UN on the human rights situation in Palestine has been drawn to my attention. Entitled 'Report of the special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967' it provides chapter and verse on the abuses suffered by the Palestinians. It can be found online at http://ap.ohchr.org/documents/dpage_e.aspx?m=91 .

I shall be in Exeter tonight to address the Devon branch of the European Movement and again tomorrow to speak to the Devon Twinning Circle. On Sunday I address the conference of our sister party in Rome. On Monday Parliament sits again in Strasbourg.