Graham's blog Friday 23 October 2009

Published on Fri 23rd Oct 2009

Parliament met in Strasbourg this week for our formal debates and votes. Since we are almost at the end of the Commission's term of office and awaiting the formation of a new Commission there is relatively little legislation to vote on, but there are all kinds of other things to keep us occupied.

One novelty this week was the first ever 'Question Time' with the President of the Commission. I was the first to propose this at the EP's governing body, the Conference of Presidents, two or three years ago. It encountered a surprising degree of resistance at the time. So I felt more than a little satisfaction at participating in the first such occasion and in being called; I asked Barroso how he intends to ensure that future economic growth is environmentally sustainable and he gave a reasonably good answer. I had planned a more combative question, attacking the Leader of the Socialists for his opposition to market liberalisation, but the mood of the occasion was consensual rather than conflictual and I decided to not to disturb it.

Parliament debated this week the impact of climate change on the world's poorest countries and what the EU could and should be doing to help. MEPs from all the major parties called for the EU to compensate these countries for the damage the industrialised world has caused by assisting them with technology transfer and fighting deforestation. The Swedish environment minister, currently chairing the Council of Environment Ministers, assured us that the Council (in which the 27 national governments are represented) is aware of the scale of the funding required to meet the needs of developing countries, which the Commission estimates at EUR100 billion per year until 2020. But as we were debating in Strasbourg the EU's 27 national finance ministers were meeting in Luxembourg and they failed to reach agreement on the EU contribution towards funding the global fight against climate change. This left the environment ministers, who met the following day, at pains to reach agreement: the matter of who pays what will have to await the heads of state and government at next week's European Council ('summit') meeting. My fear is that money already earmarked for the millenium development goals will end up being re-packaged to help fight climate change, ie that little new money will be put on the table.

Parliament voted on Thursday the EU budget for next year. This was only a first reading vote; the final votes come in December. We voted to put money aside to help developing countries fight climate change, to be determined more precisely depending on agreements at the UN's the Copenhagen conference. We also voted to increase spending on measures to help get the economy back into growth, telling the Council of Ministers that they need to spend EUR 7 billion more than they agreed at their first reading vote in July. Among other decisions were more aid for Palestine and more money for the European Fund for Refugees.

On Tuesday I saw Commissioner Spidla, the Social Affairs commissioner, to discuss the way in which 2000 employees were made redundant with only three days notice at Nortel in Berkshire. It is outwith my constituency, but a number of my constituents worked there. He shares my view that the company's UK administrators, Ernst and Young, appear to have broken the law and has asked the UK government to provide information to the Commission.

The Liberal Group had it first row of the new Parliament this week, after a motion critical of Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi's attacks on media freedom was defeated by just one vote. It was a resolution we had put forward; yet three of our Irish MEPs and one of our Finnish members voted against. It gave Berlusconi an unnecessary victory.

Among visitors I met this week were Finnish EU Affairs minister Astrid Thors, a former Liberal MEP; and Turkey's chief EU accession negotiator Egemen Bagis. I also welcomed my constituency office team to Strasbourg, the first time any of them has visited.

Tonight I will attend a social event in Somerton and Frome constituency, where my wife is doing the cooking, and tomorrow morning a climate change awareness-raising event in Yeovil constituency. Tomorrow afternoon I speak to Bath's Royal Literary and Scientific Institution about the changes that the Lisbon Treaty will bring.

Next week the EP is in recess for the Michaelmas holiday, so I'll write again early in November.