Graham's blog Friday 4 April 2008

Published on Fri 4th Apr 2008

Another wall dividing a city has been torn down by the EU's 'soft power' without a drop of blood being spilt. This week the barriers separating northern from southern Nicosia in Ledra Street were formally removed by President Christofias (Republic of Cyprus) and Prime Minister Talat (Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus), allowing trade and normal shopping to resume. Those barriers had been in place longer than the Berlin Wall, though in reality Berlin was divided for a little longer than Nicosia.

By pure happenstance, the person proposed as Cyprus' new EU Commissioner also underwent cross-examination by MEPs this week in a joint meeting of the parliamentary committees she will report to. Androula Vassiliou, who the committee chairmen have recommended for approval by Parliament after a bravura performance, will not change the political balance of the Commission: like her predecessor Markos Kyprianou, she is a Liberal (though in her case denomination d'origine controlee); but she changes the gender balance positively.

I was in Bulgaria on Monday adressing a meeting on the right to freedom of movement in the EU (for my speech see www.grahamwatsonmep.org) and meeting the leaders of the three coalition parties. I advised the prime minister to sack his interior minister, Mr Petkov, against whom evidence of mafia connections is piling up in an investigation by the Agency for National Security. In a western European country he would already have offered his resignation, but this is the Balkans. Nonetheless the investigation and his inevitable departure from office are a fruit of the reforms introduced to join the EU and a sign that Bulgaria is on the right track.

Greater transparency in Brussels also took a step forward this week with the adoption in committee of a report recommending a register of government lobbyists. There are now more lobbyists in Brussels than in Washington and, with the Commission publishing the names of all members of policy advisory committees, sunlight will - in the words of US high court judge Louis Brandeis - 'be the best disinfectant'. The pilot of the measure, Finnish Conservative Alexander Stubb MEP - was appointed later the same day his country's new secretary of state for foreign affairs. His predecessor's text messages to a stripper had been published on the internet.

Yesterday, with the opening of the NATO summit in Bucharest, Greece blocked the granting to Macedonia of a roadmap to NATO membership. They cannot accept the country calling itself 'Macedonia' and attempts at mediation failed. This is stupid, since Greece, like the rest of us, has an interest in the collective security NATO provides: but the Macedonians hardly helped their own case by deliberately provoking Greek ire, for example by calling their main airport 'Alexander the Great'. Whatever that airstrip and collection of Nissen huts is, it does not merit the title.

Paddy Ashdown was in Brussels this week to launch a book he has co-written with Robert Cooper, a former adviser to Blair and senior EU civil servant. Paddy has lost nothing of his flair for presentation and continued to wax lyrical over a small supper afterwards. This year sees the 25th anniversary of his victory in securing election as MP for Yeovil. I was pleased to see he is still going strong.

I welcomed visitors groups from Bideford College in Devon and the Tamar branch of the European Movement; and spoke by videolink to a conference of EU school history teachers in Bristol. Today I will be in Gloucester to talk to county councillors about EU developments and later in Salerno in Italy to campaign for one of my colleagues who is a candidate in their general election. From there I travel to Finland for an EU Liberal Summit hosted by prime minister Vanhanen, to plan our strategy for the 2009 election.