Graham's blog Friday 1 May 2009

Published on Fri 1st May 2009

Readers are advised to check their European Health Insurance Card before the summer holidays, because two-thirds of all the EHI cards issued in the UK expired in March of this year. You can apply for a new one online (https://www.ehic.org.uk/Internet/home.do) or call 0845 606 2030; you should then receive one by post, free of charge.

Today, the Labour Day holiday in continental Europe, is also the 5th anniversary of the enlargement of the EU to ten new countries. Five years ago we were joined by Poland (population 40 million) and nine other countries (Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Malta and Cyprus (combined population just under 40 m). Most people judge it to have been a success. The 470 m EU citizens of 2004 were joined in 2007 by Bulgaria, bringing the EU's population to 500 m.

I am often asked about how the EU is funded. Contributions are worked out according to a complicated formula involving gross national income and VAT receipts, but the outcome is that this year Germany's gross contribution to the 2009 budget will be EUR 20 billion, France's EUR 19.7 bn, Italy's EUR 16.2 bn and the UK's EUR 12.5 bn. Keep this figures with you for next time anybody tells you we pay more than our fair share!

Representatives of the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament met overnight on Monday in the final session of the conciliation committee on the revision of the working time directive. They were unable to reach agreement, so the 1993 directive (allowing an opt-out from the maximum 48 hour a week limit) remains in force, meaning that the UK's retained fire fighters, junior doctors etc can continue to provide emergency cover. This is the first time since the entry into force of the Treaty of Amsterdam that the European Parliament and the 27 national governments have failed to reach agreement on a piece of legislation.

On Wednesday the European Commission published proposals to regulate hedge funds and other 'alternative investments'. These affect the UK more than other EU countries, since most such funds have been UK based. The hedge fund managers reacted by saying the proposed regulatory regime - under which fund managers would have to be authorised by government and meet risk management standards including minimum capital requirements - would cripple businesses that manage some EUR 2,000 billion of assets. They're calling the proposed measures 'disproportionate, inappropriate and anti-competitive'. To me, the European Commission's proposals sound about right. The EP and member states will have to agree them before they come into force, possibly within the next three years.

Liberal Democrat MEPs from across the EU met in London this week at the invitation of their UK colleagues. We threw a reception on Monday in the historic late Victorian National Liberal Club, arranged visits to the BBC and to the Kings Cross redevelopment scheme and organised a seminar on UK politics addressed by our Westminster leader Nick Clegg MP. We then studied parliamentary business for the final week of the 2004-09 parliament, which starts on Monday in Strasbourg, and agreed on how we would vote. Outside our formal sessions I was struck by how visible is the recession in London's bars and restaurants, with many places operating well below capacity.

Back in Brussels on Wednesday afternoon I received representatives of Business Europe and the EU Chambers of Commerce, eager to give advice on the policies needed to keep the recession as short and as shallow as possible; the following day I hosted a round table for representatives of NGOs working on climate change, eager to stress that we need to emerge from recession with a more sustainable type of economic growth. I have much sympathy with their case. If I am elected President of the EP in July I hope to promote the 'green growth' agenda.

The demands of an imminent election again dictate a heavy weekend schedule. On Thursday evening I was in Cologne, tonight I will be in Dorset, tomorrow in Wiltshire, Somerset, Dorset and Wiltshire again. And on Sunday evening I fly back to the continent.