Graham's blog Friday 4 July 2008

Published on Fri 4th Jul 2008

On 1 July France formally took over from Slovenia the baton of the EU Presidency, to great French fanfare. But with President Sarkozy deciding to engage in a barrage of bitter public criticism of Commissioners McCreevy (single market) and Mandelson (trade), some of us fear the whole thing could yet turn sour very early on.

The European People's Party, the largest in the House (288 MEPs), held its meeting this week in Strasbourg. Their French members are from Sarkozy's UMP Party and they wanted to mark the moment. I took my troops to Tallinn in Estonia, where both the governing party and the major opposition are from our political family, economic liberal and social liberal respectively. We had good discussions about tax policy and the situation of the Russian minority and a heated difference of opinion over next week's plenary debate and resolution on the many thousands of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. (The pro Palestine faction won, but on this issue my Group is divided, as are the others.) In the end we could have spared our emotions, for the Socialists and the EPP voted on Thursday to postpone the debate until September; and when they unite they have a clear majority.

I had been in Stroud on Monday morning and at Westminster in the afternoon and had a 4.30 am start to get to Tallinn on Tuesday and another to get back to Brussels on Thursday, so I was not in fantastic shape to hear Commissioners Figel (Commissioner for Education, Training, Culture and Youth) and Spidla (Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities) present the Commission's long awaited 'social package' in Parliament. But, true to his word, Barroso has sent us a comprehensive draft directive against discrimination in the workplace to which we hope to give a first reading before Parliament rises for next June's elections. And alongside green and white papers on other aspects of social policy there is also a draft directive which would give medical patients' the right to treatment anywhere in the EU. This was arrogantly dismissed at Westminster as 'health tourism' which the UK says it will oppose: but a startling one in five marriages in the EU now involves partners of different citizenships; we have to plan for the multi-national community each of our countries is becoming.

Eurozone inflation reached 4% in June. The European Central Bank raised interest rates yesterday to a 7-year high of 4.25%, which will force the UK to raise rates again too. Being outside the euro, we need to offer a premium to investors to hold sterling, which means borrowing in the UK is always more expensive than on the continent.

Parliament votes next week on the greenhouse gas emissions quota trading system. Plans to include civil aviation in the scheme are subject to a heavy lobby from the airlines, which - already under pressure from oil prices (and, in the UK, aircraft passenger tax) oppose them strongly. I believe the measure will be adopted nonetheless on 9 July.

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