Graham's blog Friday 24 April 2009

Published on Fri 24th Apr 2009

Orthodox Easter holidays for our Greek and some of our Bulgarian MEPs meant that Parliament sat from Tuesday to Friday this week rather than Monday to Thursday. It allowed me to spend Monday in my constituency: I canvassed voters with one of our Unitary Authority candidates in Chippenham and spoke to pupils at the South Wilts Grammar School in Salisbury. I suspect the head teacher would have preferred me not to use the occasion to attack the Tories for having voted against the European Arrest Warrant which I pilotted through the House a few years ago: but I gave a local example of a murder victim whose family would probably never have seen the killer brought to justice had it not been for my measure. And if the self-styled "party of law and order" has taken such leave of its senses on all matters European as to oppose co-operation in fighting crime I believe it deserves to be pilloried from Penzance to Pewsham!

The need for such police and magistrate co-operation was underlined by a recent report from the European Police Office stating that last year there were 391 separate terrorist attacks in Europe (though virtually none of them by Islamists): but a further 125 were foiled and over 1,000 people arrested on terrorist charges, increasingly thanks to cross-border co-operation.

In Strasbourg on Tuesday I took three young Sri Lankans from London to see the EU's external relations commissioner, Benita Ferrero-Waldner. Protests against the lack of intervention by the international community to stop the killing of Tamils by Singhalese have escalated with the rising violence, and Simon Hughes MP had persuaded one young lad to come off hunger strike on the basis that he would arrange meetings for them with people in public office. I had agreed to help with the Brussels end. The Commissioner outlined the actions she had taken to try to intervene (and the list is impressive) but had to concede that the larger EU member states were reluctant to allow action while the US administration considered Sri Lankan measures as part of the global 'war on terror'. I urged her to get Sri Lanka high on the agenda of the 27 EU foreign ministers, who meet on Monday.

On Wednesday we had a marathon two and a quarter hour voting session, during which we completed our first reading of the draft Patients' Rights Directive, which would allow EU citizens to seek treatment in other member states; and approved a liberalization of the gas and electricity markets which does not go as far as Liberal Democrats wanted but is nonetheless a step towards bringing down prices through greater market efficiency. We also legislated to cap the charges which can be levied by mobile phone service providers for sending text messages from one EU country to another.

And on Thursday, in the presence of the Leaders of Moldova's three opposition parties (all Liberal parties!) who I had invited for the occasion, Parliament debated the police brutality towards protesters after the recent (and almost certainly rigged) parliamentary election. For my speech in the debate, see You Tube or www.grahamwatsonm.org .

On Tuesday I had joined the President of Parliament in speaking at the dedication of one of our public spaces in Strasbourg to Bronislaw Geremek MEP, who died last year. We will shortly name one of the public spaces in our Brussels buildings after another prominent Liberal - frenchwoman Simone Veil, the EPs first ever President. And on Wednesday I addressed groups of candidates for the European parliament elections in June from Lower Saxony and West France. With an election soon, interest in our work is growing appreciably.

Tonight I address our LibDem euro election rally in West Camel in Somerset; tomorrow a rally in Exeter.