Graham's blog entry 21 September 2007

Published on Fri 21st Sep 2007

Party Conference in Brighton meant that my week started on Sunday at the lunchtime meeting of LibDem parliamentarians. Ming Campbell addressed the assembled MPs, Lords, MEPs, MSPs and AMs looking fit and relaxed, a far cry from the cartoonists' merciless portrayal of him in the newspapers. Noting that the odds on a General Election this autumn have shortened, he set out the compromise struck among the MPs about any referendum on the EU's amending treaty: 'we oppose a referendum on the text of the amending treaty; if there has to be a referendum it must be on the question of in or out'. This is a fudge, but I can live with it as long as the conditionality remains. Of course, many press reports already say the Party now favours a referendum.

I was given the honour of introducing European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso to the conference on Monday; to my knowledge, he is the first serving President of the Commission ever to address a UK political party conference. He spoke mainly about the EU's new focus on combating climate change. The following day the College of Commissioners approved a proposal from Development Aid Commissioner Louis Michel (European Liberal Democrat, Belgium) and Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas (European People's Party, Greece) for the EU to work with the world's poorer countries to help them mitigate, prepare for and adapt to climate change. 50 million euros has already been allocated to this work, but more will need to be found. In July and August alone the EU provided disaster relief aid of nearly half that amount (24.5m) for floods on the Indian sub-continent, drought in Moldova and hurricanes in the Caribbean. The Commission also approved an important proposal to liberalise the EU's energy markets so as to create a single market in energy within the Union.

By late Monday evening I was in Barcelona for two days of meetings between my MEPs and Catalan and Spanish leaders, hosted by our Catalan sister party Convergencia Democrata de Catalunya. The Catalans are hugely interested by what is happening in Scotland, where SNP Leader and new First Minister of Scotland Alex Salmond wants a referendum on independence; and in Belgium, where inability to form a new government after 100 days of haggling between the parties has led to speculation about 'divorce' between Flanders and Wallonia. Up against a fiercely centralist Madrid, they too talk of greater autonomy and eventual independence. I warn them that while Liberalism and Nationalism may walk together in youth, they cannot stay together: feelings of superiority grate with Liberals; discrimination is illiberal and violence is the antithesis of Liberalism. While supporting their desire for de facto independence I feel the need to reflect more on how far we can take the Wilsonian doctrine of self determination of peoples. An independent Kosovo is already a step too far for some.

In my newsletter of a fortnight ago I recounted how, in a debate on 5 September, MEPs lambasted the EU's national governments for not having filled the vacancy of anti-terrorism co-ordinator since the last jobholder quit in March. I was therefore pleased and more than a little amused to see a modest announcement on Wednesday of this week that a new Co-ordinator has been appointed: he is Gilles de Kerchove, a public servant who I know well from my days piloting anti-terrorism provisions through the House after 9/11 (as Chairman of the EP's Justice and Home Affairs Committee); and he is a good choice.

Two long-stalled EU projects appear to be undergoing a revival. Work on the proposed NABUCCO gas pipeline across the Black Sea is to be overseen by my Dutch Liberal friend (and former Party Leader) Jozias van Aartsen, whose appointment as Co-ordinator was announced last week; and agreement has been reached on funding the GALILEO satellite system from the EU budget with a view to launching the 26 remaining satellites in the autumn of 2009 and having the system fully operational by the middle of 2013. The global market for satellite navigation is growing rapidly and the EU - which could account for one third of it - cannot afford to miss out.

I flew back to Brighton on Wednesday afternoon to be there for the Leader's speech on Thursday. Ming was on good form and made a fine speech, taking head-on those who criticise him for his age. All in all we appear to have had a good week in Brighton. With each passing year we look closer to achieving power at Westminster.

Today I visit the Sir Bernard Lovell School in Oldham Common, one of the five schools which has taken a chinese language teaching assistant under my Broadening Horizons programme.

Tomorrow I attend a North Cornwall LD social evening in Bude at the home of the Whalleys, whose admirable hospitality I first enjoyed in Penrith 24 years ago (when they kindly housed a young liberal who had traveled there to help in the by-election caused by the ennoblement of Willie Whitelaw).

On Sunday I join Cllr Hazel Prior-Sankey at the launch of the Somerset Waterways festival.