Graham's Blog

Regular views, thoughts and comment from Graham Watson MEP on the news, the European Parliament and more.

If you would like to comment on any of the items you see here, please send Graham an email to the following address info@grahamwatsonmep.org

10 Most Recent Stories From Graham's Blog

Fri 9th May 2008:

Graham's blog Friday 9 May 2008.

Parliament re-assembled in Brussels this week after a week's break. We marked the tenth anniversary of the decision to create the Euro, which is currently worth around 80p against 68p a year ago. Unfortunately for me, I am paid by the UK government in pounds which now buy fewer euros, though living in Langport my expenditure is still mainly in sterling. In ten days' time the European Commission and the Central Bank are likely to recommend that Slovakia joins the euro on 1 January next year, becoming the 16th country to join.

Fri 25th Apr 2008:

Graham's blog Friday 25 April 2008.

I enjoyed this week a rare occasion to take up the cudgels on behalf of Gibraltar, which was added to my SW England constituency just before the 2004 European election. Two Spanish Partido Popular (Conservative) MEPs had tabled an Oral Question on the sinking of the ship the New Flame off Gibraltar last August and were trying to use it to accuse Gibraltar of almost every ill afflicting their country. As a Group leader I generally enjoy the privilege of speaking only in the major debates, at civilised hours; but on Monday I found myself in the Chamber from 1115 till nearly midnight demanding that the Commissioner set the facts straight. First, that the collision and the sinking took place to the south east of Gib, not in the Bay as the Spanish MEPs claimed; second, that the co-operation between the Gibraltar and Spanish authorities was excellent and third that no pollution (other than a minor spill of engine oil) occurred as a result. Commissioner Barrot obliged and as a result the resolution we voted was reasonable. It will be one of his last acts, however, as Transport commissioner, since he is about to be reshuffled to Justice and Home Affairs to prevent that post being filled by a Berlusconi nominee. (The vacancy arises from the resignation of the previous Italian commissioner.)

Fri 18th Apr 2008:

Graham's blog Friday 18.04.08.

Parliament has been in committee session in Brussels this week. My Group seized the opportunity to organise three extra events: a public hearing on the Natura2000 programme (protected conservation areas) in which we sought to examine how local business had been affected in these areas; a hearing on how to secure better protection aginst discrimination for LGBT (Lesbian, gay bisexual and transgender) people; and a conference which brought Asian, African and European MPs together to discuss world issues of mutual concern. We also pressed for and obtained agreement to a debate in our plenary session in Strasbourg next week on rising world food prices. Contrary to some allegations, there is little evidence this is linked to biofuel production: rather it arises from growth in demand, especially in China and India where people are better off and can afford to eat more, and from speculative forward purchasing of food stocks. (Why we allow people to buy goods that do not yet exist with money they do not yet have is beyond me. This kind of casino capitalism can be deeply damaging.)

Fri 11th Apr 2008:

Graham's blog Friday 11 April 2008.

The 'summit' of Liberal leaders in north eastern Finland last Sunday and Monday did not attract a full house; two of our Prime Ministers and a few of our EU Commissioners were absent. Nonetheless it was a success. It will go down in my memory as the 'snowmobile summit' since we were all taken on a snowmobile safari (see photos at www.grahamwatsonmep.org) before the obligatory Finnish sauna and the formal part of the meeting. We agreed the outlines of an EU-wide campaign for the 2009 EU elections and a strategy to maximise the influence of Europe's Liberal Democrats in top EU posts. Today finds me in the Estonian capital Tallinn at an ELDR Council meeting with many of our party campaigners present, to put some flesh on the bones of that strategy.

Fri 4th Apr 2008:

Graham's blog Friday 4 April 2008.

Another wall dividing a city has been torn down by the EU's 'soft power' without a drop of blood being spilt. This week the barriers separating northern from southern Nicosia in Ledra Street were formally removed by President Christofias (Republic of Cyprus) and Prime Minister Talat (Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus), allowing trade and normal shopping to resume. Those barriers had been in place longer than the Berlin Wall, though in reality Berlin was divided for a little longer than Nicosia.

Fri 28th Mar 2008:

Graham's blog entry 28 March 2008.

While most MEPs returned to Brussels on Tuesday after a short Easter break I set out for Kosovo with three of my colleagues to meet government and opposition representatives there and to be briefed by UNMIK and KFOR on the security situation. It was my first visit to Pristina and I was fortunate enough to have among my companions Slovenian LibDem MEP Jelko Kacin, a former defence minister who knows the whole of ex-Yugoslavia. We met the President and the Prime Minister and leaders of the political parties and came away convinced that the overwhelming majority of Kosovo's Serbs and Albanians want to make a multi-ethnic society work but are being undermined by forces in Belgrade which seek to destabilise the area north of the river Ibar, by radicalising the majority Serb population there. For the EU to take on responsibility for security in Kosovo is indeed a big challenge. If the chronic unemployment (officially 33% but really over 60%, the Minister of labour told us), poverty (average PCI just over EUR 1000), electricity shortages and dearth of water are not problem enough, the armed attacks earlier this month (by Serbs on customs points, the railway, police forces and the court house in Mitrovica in the north) stretch substantially the resources and the mandate of the 300 or so NATO troops there. Unless the result of Serbia's forthcoming election brings about a change in policy, Kosovo could turn out to be the first real test of the EU's nascent common foreign and security policy. And if we want stability on our borders we cannot afford to fail.

Thu 20th Mar 2008:

Graham's blog entry 20 March 2008.

This week the European Parliament is in recess. Next week, when most MEPs' children enjoy school holidays, we will be back at work. Wonderful planning!

Fri 14th Mar 2008:

Graham's blog entry 14 March 2008.

The atlantic storm which hit the UK on Sunday night reached Brussels on monday morning, causing flights to Strasbourg to be cancelled and generally disrupting parliamentary business. I had escaped to Brussels Sunday night and travelled on overland, so was present to speak in the debate on Gaza and castigate both Israel and Hamas for their mindless violence. Opinion among my colleagues is divided, but all agree that the EU should stop following blindly the American lead. (For my speech, visit http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+CRE+20080310+ITEM-015+DOC+XML+V0//EN&language=EN&query=INTERV&detail=1-041.)

Fri 7th Mar 2008:

Graham's blog entry Friday 7 March 2008.

The European Confederation of Police, which labours under the wonderful acronym Eurocop, has spoken out against the postponement until 2009 of the new generation Schengen Information System. Originally due to be operational by March of last year, this database is a powerful tool in tracking the movements in and out of the EU of those suspected of serious crimes. The main delays have been technical, but some are political. The EU's data protection supervisor, Peter Hustinx, believes the large scale processing of personal data from frontier controls could lead to great intrusion of individual privacy and that this will lower public trust in government. Our LibDem MEPs on the civil liberties committee agree with him.

Fri 29th Feb 2008:

Graham's Blog Entry Friday 29 February 2008.

Russia's muscle is making itself felt in energy policy. While I was with Austrian prime minister Alfred Gusenbauer in Vienna on Monday discussing the bid by Austrian oil company OMV for its Hungarian counterpart MOL, news came in that Hungary had agreed to Russian proposals for a pipeline called Southstream to bring gas into central Europe. This may put in jeopardy the EU's long-planned Nabucco pipeline due to bring gas from the Caspian Sea to Europe across Turkey. The USA has said it will support Nabucco, as it did the Tbilisi-Baku-Ceyhan oil pipeline, because it will bring gas from Azerbaijan more cheaply than it can be bought from Russia. However, the gas we will need in future years is rapidly being bought by Russia under forward contracts. The urgency of the EU's plans to cut the use of oil and gas, in order to fight climate change, grows apace.

Earlier Stories

Complete archive on the official site.

Graham's Blog, provided by Prater Raines Ltd http://www.praterraines.co.uk/.

(c) 2008 Graham Watson MEP