Graham's blog Saturday 30 August 2008

Published on Sat 30th Aug 2008

The European Parliament returned this week after its four week annual summer recess. The first Group meeting after the summer recess is normally the easiest of the year; chairing the meeting of my sun-tanned and relaxed colleagues this week was no exception. There were two potentially fissiparous items on our agenda. The first was agreeing the text of a draft resolution on Palestinian prisoners in Israeli gaols (a staggering 11,000 people, including children as young as 12 and 13 who are often treated abusively); my Group is as divided as any other on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but we succeeded in reaching broad agreement nonetheless. The second was reaching agreement on the conflict between Russia and Georgia, where our MEPs from the former Soviet bloc tend to be more harshly disposed towards the Russians than some of the "western" europeans. There will be an extraordinary meeting of the European Council (our heads of state and government) on Monday followed by a statement to the European Parliament and a debate in which I must represent the views of our members. I set out my own views on the conflict during the summer break in an article on The Guardian's website (http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/aug/18/georgia.russia). I am pleased to report that the balance of views in my Group is not too far from the line I took then.

One piece of exciting news from the summer was the collapse on 7 August of the ceiling of the EP's debating chamber in Strasbourg. Luckily it was unoccupied: the tonnage of rubble that came down would have sufficed to kill ten or fifteen MEPs (interestingly, it fell mainly in the area occupied by UKIP and other anti-Europeans). To the great embarrassment of the French government, which currently chairs EU Council meetings, the matter has been seized upon by some MEPs as yet another reason for the EP to hold all its meetings in Brussels. Our first autumn plenary session, next week, has been moved to our Brussels chamber and despite efforts to carry out rapid repairs I suspect our next meeting of the full house (at the end of September) may also be moved.

At a joint meeting of the political leaders of the European Parliament and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on Thursday I paid tribute to Lord Russell-Johnston, a former MEP (in the un-elected Parliament, before 1979), leader of the Liberal Group in the Council of Europe and President (Speaker) of its Parliamentary Assembly who died during August while on Council of Europe business in Paris. Russell Johnston, who led the Scottish Liberal Party in the 1970s, was my political mentor: a great Liberal and latterly a great friend.

This weekend I have my Brussels and Langport staff teams together at a strategy planning meeting; on Sunday I attend a jumbo euro-election fundraising event at the Cotswold home of LD western counties chair Peter Ellis and his wife Jane. I hope you can join me there.

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