Graham's blog Friday 23 May 2008

Published on Fri 23rd May 2008

Parliament met in Strasbourg this week. At this time of the year fresh asparagus is on the menu of every restaurant and the weather is almost warm enough to eat outside, so most people were in a good mood.

We held an unscheduled debate on the attacks in Italy against immigrants, mainly but not exclusively from the Roma (gypsy) community. A populist election campaign by right wing forces now in government seems to have created a climate of impunity in which the mob (in Naples) and the police (in Rome) could enter immigrant ghettoes with the aim of forcible eviction. In Naples they set fire to people's lodgings and then denied access to the fire brigade; in Rome some 400 people were rounded up and threatened with summary expulsion. While Spain and Hungary, for example, have made great strides in recent years to integrate these minority communities, benefitting from EU funds we have voted for this purpose, successive Italian governments have ignored the problem and are now reaping a harvest of bitterness and violence. (For my speech about this in the House on Monday, see www.grahamwatsonmep.org.)

These issues go to the heart of Liberalism which, at its core, is all about learning to trust and live peacefully with strangers (on this subject see Paul Seabright's brilliant work 'The Company of Strangers' (Princeton Univ press) or my speech to last week's Liberal International Congress, which draws from it.)

EU Agriculture Ministers also met this week. 21 of the 27 opposed the Commission's proposal to resume the import of chickens from the US which have been washed in chlorinated water, even if subsequently washed in drinking water. They also responded to the Commission's proposals for new rules to make pesticide use compatible with sustainable development.

The European Commission adopted and presented to Parliament minor amendments to the Common Agricultural Policy. Nothing too radical, for fear of scaring Ireland's farmers ahead of June 12's Irish referendum on the Lisbon Treaty.

In Parliament we debated emergency aid to Burma and congratulated overseas aid commissioner Louis Michel (Belgium, LD) on having gone out to Burma so promptly last week to offer help (EUR 17 million thus far); and aid to the earthquake victims in China. We adopted a proposal by my colleague Liz Lynne MEP to extend the Directive on racial discrimination to cover other forms of discrimination too (principally age, disability, religion and sexual preference): the Commission is hesitating on this in view of opposition from some member states and has yet to send us a formal proposal.

Our main debate was on the interim report from our Committee on Climate change. I used the occasion to promote the plan for high power solar thermal electricity generation in the North African desert, which has the potential to provide for the entire energy needs of Europe, the Middle East and North Africa now and into the future. (Again, speech on my website.) I argued that we should make it the first project of the new Union for the Mediterranean which the French EU Presidency will launch on 13 July. But I was also proud to launch a campaign aimed at educating citizens in preventing climate change. Your children or grandchildren will love it: just tell them to click on www.theChangers.eu.

The most interesting discovery of my week is a letter dated 19 May to the President of Slovenia (current holders of the EU Presidency) signed by seven former Prime Ministers, a number of former finance ministers, Jacques Delors and eminent German Liberal Otto Graf Lambsdorff calling for the establishment of a Crisis Committee to deal with the profound danger of a global banking and economic collapse arising from recent banking practices. They point out that financial assets now represent 15 times the total GDP of all countries and that American debt amounts to more than three times US GDP, twice the level in 1929. One paragraph reads 'Free markets cannot ignore social morals. Adam Smith ... also wrote The Theory of Moral Sentiments and Max Weber connected hard work and moral values to the advance of capitalism. Decent capitalism - respecting the dignity of man, to use Amartya Sen's words - needs effective public policy. Profit seeking is the essence of a market economy. But when everything is for sale, social cohesion melts and the system breaks down.'

Powerful words. I recall that the poet Oliver Goldsmith put it even more succinctly: 'Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a-prey/ Where wealth accumulates and men decay.'

Last night I was in Street, Somerset campaigning in a local by-election. Today I am in Dublin campaigning for a Yes vote. Tomorrow I shall be in The Hague addressing The Congress of Europe (60th anniversary). I am the only Brit speaking there: as Churchill was, sixty years ago.

Hmm. I think I'd better finish there!