Graham's blog Friday 5 December 2008

Published on Fri 5th Dec 2008

While I was in the Far East last week the European Commission published its Recovery Plan. It was discussed on Tuesday by the 27 Finance Ministers and will now go to next week's European Council meeting (EU 'summit' meeting of heads of state and government). While the finance ministers could agree to increase the capital of the European Investment Bank from EUR 165 billion to EUR 232 billion, to allow it to fund new job-creating infrastructure projects, the decision on whether to pump EUR 200 billion (about 1.5% of GDP) into the EU economy, as the Commission proposes, will have to await the Council. EUR 170 billion would come from national budgets and EUR 30 billion from EU resources.

I spent Monday in Rome meeting Italian political leaders and taking part (as one of the judges) in the awards ceremony for this year's Minerva Prize. The award for the work of a politician from outside Italy went to my Hungarian Roma colleague Viktoria Mohacsi MEP for the work she has done on integration of Roma people.

The Party of European Socialists held its Conference in Madrid. They adopted a manifesto for the European elections which attacked the "Liberal Conservative" policies of Barroso's Commission yet decided not to put up a candidate of their own against Barroso (who will therefore almost certainly be re-appointed as Commission President next year)!

On Tuesday the Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni appeared before the European Parliament's foreign affairs committee and said MEPs should understand that the terrorist threat means Israel has no choice but to act as it does in Gaza. EU Humanitarian Affairs Commissioner Louis Michel (LD, Belgium) attacked Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip, pointing out that in the last month only one crossing point had been open and for only four days, making it almost impossible for humanitarian aid to get through to the Palestinians and describing this as 'collective punishment which is a violation of international humanitarian law'. On Thursday MEPs voted to postpone approval of a plan to grant Israel new privileges in scientific co-operation with the EU.

Parliament's main debates this week were on the preparations for next week's summit (Wed) and the current EU negotiations on climate change (Thur). For my speeches in the debates, see the EP website www.europarl.europa.eu. With the UN climate change conference now underway in Poznan in Poland and searching for agreements for 2012 onwards (ie. after the current Kyoto protocol expires), the EU is under pressure to agree its strategy. Bleary eyed Ministers, MEPs and officials have been much in evidence as the negotiations drag on late into the night to try to reach agreement by next week. Agreement has already been reached between member states on cutting CO2 emissions from cars: it is not as ambitious as we had hoped, but the EP will probably vote to approve it on the basis that half a loaf is better than no bread.

I co-hosted with the Liberal International a one day conference on Thursday on Zimbabwe, with participants from many African parliaments. But a combination of a formal visit to Parliament by the Dalai Lama and a formal visit of Parliament's President and political group leaders to Prague (yesterday afternoon and this morning) meant I had less time to devote to it than it deserved. Cholera is now a major problem there and womens' life expectancy is down to just 34 years.

The Czechs take over the Presidency of the EU Council in January (ie. they set the agenda for six months and their ministers chair all the meetings: and their openly euro-sceptic Prime Minister and President are likely to prove a handful. Our meeting with the President this morning involved some sharp exchanges.

I hope to land in Bristol in time to send out this newsletter this evening before turning my attention tonight and tomorrow to a huge pile of Christmas cards awaiting signature. (This is the last year I shall send them: it is becoming an environmental crime.) Tomorrow night I'll be at the AGM of the Teignbridge constituency Lib Dems.