Graham's blog Friday 6 June 2008

Published on Fri 6th Jun 2008

The ten former communist countries which joined the EU in 2004 and 2007 are proving no different from the other member states: they fail to undertake some of the reforms they have agreed and when the others ask 'why?' they plead for extra time or financial help or both. I was in Vilnius on Monday and from the Prime Minister and the other Party leaders I learned of their difficulties in closing the Ignalina nuclear power plant by 2009, as they agreed to do some 14 years ago. True, oil and gas alternatives are now much more costly than foreseen: true too that it is not in our interests to have them too dependent on Russia for energy supplies. But they've done very little in the meantime either to build a new nuclear power station or to develop other sources of power or to link their country to power distribution networks in Poland or other neighbouring EU countries.

While EU inspectors are in Bulgaria investigating why reforms pledged there have not been made, a senior Liberal government official from Sofia was in Brussels for high level talks with Commission officials. Please give us more time was - I imagine - the refrain. Bulgaria is now reforming: but it is has taken a long time and the imposition of financial sanctions.

Back in Brussels on Tuesday our life was disrupted by fishermen from France and elsewhere who allowed their protest against high fuel costs to turn nasty. They fired flares at EU buildings, breaking some windows, and overturned cars. The Belgian riot police responded with water cannon and one of the main road thoroughfares was blocked for over three hours. We rarely see such excitement.

My UK Liberal Democrat MEP colleagues and I received a group of visitors who hope to join us at next year's European election including, from the South West, Pawlett farmer Kay Barnard. I cast my mind back to how I felt as a candidate fifteen years ago. There were no UK Lib Dem MEPs then to give me advice or help me prepare. Last time around we elected 12: I believe next year we can elect 15 or 16.

The main political breakthrough this week is a result of the excellent work of my Dutch LibDem colleague Jeanine Hennis, who has brokered an agreement between parliament and the member states in the European Council on minimum standards for the treatment and repatriation of immigrants discovered to be in the EU illegally. If the compromise survives a parliamentary vote in a fortnight's time we will have succeeded in improving detention conditions for thousands of people, mainly in southern Europe, whose only 'crime' is to have sought a better life for themselves and their families by upping sticks and moving elsewhere. Jeanine pressed hard for an even better deal and is being unfairly attacked by some refugee charities for not getting one: but politics is the art of the possible and this is the best deal on offer.

A debate on the floor of the House yesterday allowed me to make the case for an effective development policy for Africa, from where most EU migrants originate. My speech can be found on my website: www.grahamwatsonmep.org

Tomorrow I travel to Yeovil for a party to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Paddy Ashdown's election as MP for Yeovil. On Sunday I take part in a dragon boat race to raise funds for victims of China's recent earthquake. Our boat, organised by the Chinese section of the UK Liberal Democrats, is called Democracy Dragon (Zhu Ming Loong). If you would like to sponsor me please do so via www.justgiving.com/grahamwatsonmep.