Graham's Blog Entry Friday 11 January 2008

Written by Graham Watson on Fri 11th Jan 2008

Brussels got back to a slow start to the New Year this week. The European Commission held its first meeting with the Slovenian Government, which has taken over the six-monthly Presidency of the EU, in Brdo near Ljubljana on Tuesday. Barrroso was not there; he has flu, and so the regular Commission meeting in Brussels on Wednesday was cancelled. But in any case the Brdo meeting, at which Vice President Wallstrom led the Commission team, was overshadowed by a press conference given in Paris by President Sarkozy in which he laid out his plans for the French Presdency of the EU (Jul-Dec 08). The timing of his press conference was surely no coincidence, nor was modesty its hallmark: Sarkozy said that by the end of his presidency he wants the EU to have an immigration policy, a defence policy, an energy policy and an environment policy. He appears to resemble the character in one of Carla Bruni's hit songs who boasts "Regardez moi; je suis le plus beau du quartier". But the EU survived Berlusconi and will survive Sarkozy. And in the meantime the Slovenes may do some good work.

While Sarkozy spoke in Paris grand and bland terms, Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa in Ljubljana outlined his ambition to sign a Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) with Serbia before the end of this month. Everybody hopes they will deliver Ratko Mladic to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) beforehand; but some would accept that the Serbs can be considered to be co-operating fully with ICTY (a precondition for a SAA with the EU) if they are clearly doing everything within their power on a sustained basis which will lead to the arrest and handover of Mladic (as happened with Croatian war criminal Gotovina some three weeks after Croatia signed a SAA). Much will hinge on the outcome of their Presidential election campaign, a close race between the moderate incumbent Boris Tadic and the more extreme Tomislav Nikolic.

Something significant happened over the holiday. On 1st January the Euro became legal tender on British territory, albeit a far-flung corner of the empire. With Cyprus joining the eurozone, the government decided it made sense for the currency to become legal tender at British bases there. But they kept it very quiet.

I took the early flight to Brussels on Tuesday with the full time staff from my constituency office, giving them a chance to get to know my Brussels staff and to see how the EP works. They attended a conference I launched on reform of the EU's budget, a debate between the principal EP Group leaders on priorities for 2008 and our New Year knees-up; and had to sit through a three and a half hour Liberal Group meeting the following morning where we agreed our positions for next week's formal debates and votes in Strasbourg.

On Tuesday morning I received the French EU Affairs Minister, who briefed me on their advance plans for the second half of 2008. At lunchtime I met UK Permanent Representative Kim Darroch, our Ambassador to the EU, to discuss the UK's wishes and concerns about current legislation (and to discuss the future for south west cider brandy). Yesterday I met Olli Rehn, the Commissioner for EU Enlargement, for a briefing on the situation in the Balkans.

Today I visit two of the schools participating in my project which brings Mandarin teachers to the south west. Tomorrow morning I chair the first full meeting of the SW team to plan the 2009 euro election campaign. In the afternoon I attend the Liberal Democrat Team for Devon meeting. In the evening I'll be telephone canvassing in support of our candidate in the West Devon Borough Council by-election in North Tavistock ward. On Sunday I will be in Bristol to discuss the Government's nuclear power plans on the BBC TV West Politics Show.