EU Priorities for Next 6 Months are 'dull'

Published on Fri 7th Jul 2006

Parliament made its monthly visit to Strasbourg this week for four days of formal debates and votes. The main 'headline' business was the presentation by the Finnish PM of his country's priorities for their six months at the helm. Replying to Mr Vanhanen's statement, the political group leaders struggled to find anything new or interesting to say about a worthy but dull shopping list of measures. I confess I was tempted to use the words of the Monty Python song 'Finland, Finland, Finland' which run 'so often neglected and sadly ignored, a poor second to Belgium when going abroad'. I restrained myself.

On the agenda of an extraordinary meeting of the Conference of Presidents (political group leaders) on Wednesday was a series of proposals for reform of the workings of the House. Reform is desperately needed: for example, we should meet in formal sitting every Wednesday to hear a report of the morning's meeting of the European Commission and hold Commissioners publicly to account. But the two big political groups voted to delay any decision until September. The bureaucracy has got hold of their leaders and is stifling initiatives for modernisation.

Finland's young European Affairs Minister Paula Lehtomakki made a statement to the House about Palestine, followed by a statement from foreign affairs Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner, who described the Israeli action in Gaza as 'collective punishment'. In the ensuing debate MEPs from across the political spectrum expressed sharper criticism of Israel than I have ever heard in Parliament before. Our own Chris Davies MEP made an excellent speech.

A decision by General Motors to close a plant in Portugal (which has had support from the European Social Fund) gave rise to an emergency debate about industrial relocation. The left wanted to condemn General Motors, the right to express nothing but the most general concern about the impact of industrial restructuring. Some of the economic Liberals in my Group wanted to vote against adopting any resolution: I pointed out that the sudden decision this week by Imerys plc to axe 800 clay mining jobs in Cornwall creates the kind of social problem that even believers in the free market ignore at their peril.

In terms of legislation, we approved those parts of the EU budget which need Parliament's formal approval, signing off a regional development budget worth EUR9.4 billion to the UK over seven years. We also voted new regulations governing the safety of barge traffic and I was particularly pleased that the Commissioner mentioned in his speech my work to exempt leisure craft owners from the legislation.

Maciej Giertych, a Polish MEP (and father of Poland's deputy PM), shocked the House when he praised General Franco during a debate to mark the fortieth anniversary of his overthrow. He is no doubt one of the potential new colleagues for the UK Tory MEPs if they leave the European People's Party.

My attendance in Strasbourg was cut short at both ends of the week by a visit to Torbay on Monday (to discuss the Bay's economic problems with the new local authority Chief Executive) and to launch the Tall Ships Youth Trust's first "Voyage of Understanding" which takes 48 youngsters from ten different countries on an 800 nautical mile voyage; and a speech at the Local Government Conference in Bournemouth yesterday evening.