Anti Counterfeiting Trade Agreement shortly to come before the EU Parliament
Tuesday I met Steve Bradley, Chair of the Green Liberal Democrats from the UK (an associate body of the party). We spoke about the plans of the EU’s current Danish presidency to advance investment on renewables before I went into committee to press Denmark’s EU Affairs minister specifically on this point. Denmark’s government ministers, who chair the meetings of the Council of Ministers for the first half of this year, were much in evidence in Parliament; their agriculture minster spoke of using the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the CAP to reform the policy. If only!
This week I also met representatives of the Health Food Manufacturers Association to discuss the European Food Safety Authority’s policy on licensing food which claims beneficial health effects (eg prunes). The EFSA published on Tuesday its scientific decision making criteria, which I and many MEPs intend to challenge when they are discussed in committee next week.
The controversial Anti Counterfeiting Trade Agreement governing copyright will shortly come before Parliament since it has now been signed (though not yet ratified) by five EU member states. Since it will apply to Internet counterfeiting it has become a matter of interest to netizens, many of whom have written urging me to oppose it, arguing that it breaches EU human rights law. I will study it next week prior to discussion in the Liberal Group on how we will vote. The Commission also published two internet related bills to boost confidence in the Internet by establishing a right to erasure of data and better data protection rules and enforcement procedures.
Safety on passenger ships was on our agenda because of the sinking of the Costa Concordia off Italy, with Transport commissioner Siim Kallas (Estonia, LD) outlining EU procedures and legal competences. Victims’ families must seek compensation under Italian law because few countries have ratified the Convention of Athens, an intergovernmental convention governing these things. An EU-wide law is needed.
David Cameron was at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, of which the UK currently has the presidency, to talk about reforming the European Court of Human Rights (a Council of Europe, not an EU, institution: the Council of Europe has 47 member states and few legal powers, unlike the tighter-knit EU). If he treads in this area he should wear slippers rather than Doc Martens: ECHR rulings may not be to his liking but the Strasbourg human rights architecture is a monument to good design and careful construction.
The week ended on a good note, with Chancellor Merkel saying - in a newspaper interview and then at Davos - that the Germans will show solidarity with other EU countries and will shore up the euro. On Monday the EU’s heads of state and government meet in Brussels to agree the new budgetary discipline treaty which Germany has insisted on to underpin it.
Regards
Graham
Tags: ACTA, David Cameron, flight safety, Food Manufacturers Association, job creation