Graham's blog Friday 7 May 2010

Published on Fri 7th May 2010

One of the frustrations of being elected to a supra-national parliament is that business does not grind to a halt simply because one of the twenty-seven member states has a national parliamentary election. So although I have been been as active as I could reasonably hope to be - campaigning in West Dorset, South East Cornwall, Newquay and St Austell, East Devon, Chippenham, Gloucester, Wells, Bridgwater, Somerton and Frome and Bristol NorthWest - I have been bogged down too much in European Parliamentary duties such as leading a visit of the delegation I chair to India, having to attend meetings to do with Moldova (I am Parliament's rapporteur for the new agreement the EU hopes soon to sign with Moldova), chairing meetings of the all-party renewable energy super grid group, etc: and, this week, voting on issues as diverse as animal welfare and the accounts of the EU's executive agencies.

Nonetheless I was pleased to be home yesterday to help get voters to the polling stations and to follow the results coming in from one of the most interesting general election campaigns in recent history. If there is one clear winner, it is the case for reform of the UK's antiquated and unjust voting system.

Parliament was addressed by US Vice President Joe Biden, who pleaded for our help in sharing information about airline passengers in the light of the revelation that the Pakistani-American man who planted a bomb in New York's Times Square managed to board a flight to Dubai and thus almost got away. (Parliament had postponed the previous day a vote on the new plan for the sharing of airline passenger name recognition data until after the discussions which Vice President Biden is having with Commission and Council this week.)

I was pleased to welcome to Brussels this week Susan Brownlow, new Director of the Combined Universities in Cornwall, who was over to speak at a conference on education.

There was good news this week for people affected by flight delays due to volcanic ash who are trying to secure their rights to compensation from airlines. Consumer rights in this case have been spelt out on the internet together with a draft pro-forma letter of complaint: these can be found on the European Consumer Centre website: http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/ecc/index_en.htm. When our members states' transport ministers met on Tuesday they called for policies to accelerate the move to a 'Single European Sky' so that co-ordination among air traffic authorities and a common approach to the management of risks such as volcanic ash - especially in the management of air traffic flows - will be better in future.

There was bad news for those who believe the EU can take a global lead in the development of renewable energy technologies. The Commissioner for climate change revealed that China has spent US$ 230 billion in green investment, the USA US$ 80 billion and the EU only US$ 25 billion thus far. All the more reason for Barroso to embrace the European Climate Foundation's remarkable study on decarbonisation of the EU's economy as the Union's next 'big idea'. But I fear he lacks the required sense of urgency. Addressing Parliament about jobs and growth on Wednesday he said relatively little about how decarbonising the economy can help stimulate investment and create a net growth in employment.

By the time you read this we may have all the general election results in. Whatever the final outcome, the UK's membership of the EU looks set - regrettably - to remain a thorny issue.