Parliament met in Strasbourg this week. We adopted a measure which will prevent the practice by some unscrupulous employers of applying their home country’s employment law in their staff contracts irrespective of the country in which their employees are working. We also voted to approve the Commission’s proposal for a common consolidated corporate tax base, though this is highly unlikely to be adopted by the 27 governments in the Council of Ministers. And we voted (well, I did not!) to approve the new agreement on sharing of personal data of airline passengers with the US federal government. The Liberal and Socialist groups were divided on the issue, in our case partly because the agreement was negotiated and proposed to the House by Liberal Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom of Sweden (Commissioner for Home Affairs). While the House adopted it by 409 votes to 226 with 33 abstentions, only 21 Liberal MEPs voted in favour while 47 opposed it and 7 abstained. It was not our most glorious hour.

The 27 national environment ministers met on Wednesday and Thursday in Denmark, the country which currently holds the rotating presidency of the EU. They discussed emissions trading, resource use and sustainable development with the Commissioners for the Environment (Janez Potocnik of Slovenia, a Liberal Democrat) and Climate Change (Connie Hedegaard of Denmark, a Conservative). They agreed the EU’s negotiating mandate for the UN’s Rio + 20 conference on sustainable development in June. I do not yet know whether they settled their differences on the outstanding disagreements about the energy efficiency directive.

On environment matters, readers with children may be interested to know of an online competition with eleven days left to run called the European Citizens’ Climate Cup, a household competition between different countries to reduce CO2 emissions. You can find it at http://uk.theclimatecup.eu. It was drawn to my attention by the pioneering Severn Wye Energy Agency in Gloucestershire.

Farmers may be interested to know that the European Court of Auditors, in a report published on Tuesday, is critical of the Commission’s proposals to simplify its agricultural grant giving mechanisms. It says the proposed new schemes are still too complex and too focussed on cutting spending rather than reforming farming practices, which will add to the armoury of those seeking further reform.

I took MEPs from my climate parliament to visit the Energy Commissioner to plead for more investment in electricity distribution networks. I spoke in the House on Azerbaijan (repression of dissidents) and on the transfer of airline passenger data. And I was pleased to welcome visitors to Strasbourg from the Tamar branch of the European Movement.

Tomorrow afternoon I fly to Germany to address the national conference of their Free Democratic (Liberal) Party in my role as President of the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party.

The European Parliament’s Liberal Group held a hearing in Wednesday to debate the European Commission’s proposals to reorganise takeoff and landing slots in order to cut air and noise pollution and maximise airport capacity. EU Commission officials and the International Air Transport Association, representing the airlines, were invited to express their concerns in advance of votes in parliament in the coming months.

The best news of the week for me was Bristol reaching the final shortlist of three cities for the EU Green Capital Award 2014. The Council has made great strides forward under Liberal Democrat stewardship. We must now battle it out against Copenhagen and Frankfurt, each of which has substantially greater resources.

Palestine was also under discussion, with a meeting on Wednesday of the international ‘Quartet’ of the EU, the USA, Russia and the UN. Funding for the Palestinian authority is a constant challenge; Palestinian tax revenues are collected by Israel and frequently not passed on to the Palestinian government. Since 2008 the EU has donated €1.3 bn to help pay salaries and other running costs of the administration.

EU home affairs commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom (Sweden, LD) held talks with Greek minister Chrisochoidis on Monday to express once again the EU’s concern about the building of a fence by the River Evros to keep migrants out. Greece has received EU subsidies for managing migration from (or rather through) Turkey, including help with the building of reception centres, and should not need a physical barrier of this kind. But there was also good news from Greece at a conference on Tuesday hosted by energy commissioner Guenther Oettinger (Germany, EPP) on renewable energy in the Balkans: Greece confirmed that solar energy production is due to rise from 206 megawatts today to 2.2 gigawatts by 2020 and 10 GW by 2050, to be accompanied by a major investment in cabling for distribution of the electricity generated up to northern Europe.

The week’s news was mainly bad, however. Unemployment figures show joblessness in the EU, at 10.2%, to be at its highest in many years. Spain, which has the highest level, announced austerity measures which may make matters worse in the short term; and a debt issue by the Spanish government was undersubscribed. As monetary affairs commissioner Olli Rehn (Finland, LD) pointed out, unemployment fell in eight member states but rose in eighteen. And a conference in Brussels on Tuesday on the Schmallenberg virus heard that although currently few animals in the eight countries affected have contracted the disease, it is nonetheless still spreading. Farmers in my constituency see that all too well and are naturally concerned that a vaccine against the illness be developed rapidly.

Elections in Burma which were widely judged to be free and fair - and which were won by our Liberal sister party the National League for Democracy, led by Aung San Suu Kyi - led to calls for the lifting of sanctions when the EU’s foreign ministers meet later this month. Our own government is wise to urge caution. A gradual lifting in exchange for further reform is the strategy most likely to keep the reforms going.

I left Brussels on Wednesday evening to take a few days holiday with my 17 year old son. I hope you, my readers, also enjoy a break over Easter.

By the time I was in Copenhagen on Tuesday to lobby Environment Minister Martin Lidegaard (a young and very bright Liberal) about an EU wide electricity smart supergrid (and to meet the Leaders of both our Liberal parties there to seek their support for EU-wide Liberal campaigns), MEPs and ministers from the 27 member state governments were gathering in Brussesls to agree a third and further round of cuts to the prices mobile phone operators can charge for data transfer and ‘roaming’. So people returning from summer holidays abroad this year will have fewer nasty shocks with their mobile phone bills.

There was other good news too this week for my constituents. The European Commission agreed to the UK coalition government’s plans to subsidise rural post offices, deeming this not to breach competition law. And Cllr Roger Simmonds of B&NES made good progress in Brussels in gaining EU funds for transport projects in and around Bath.

As Parliament’s rapporteur for Moldova I was briefed on Wednesday by Prime Minister Filat and Foreign Minister Leanca on developments in their country, where they have finally managed to secure the parliamentary majority needed to elect a President. Later, before the Parliament’s plenary session, I spoke to visitors from Exeter University’s Law School about issues such as EU co-operation in the fight against piracy in the Indian Ocean, about which the Commission was hosting a conference that day with the International Maritime Organisation and other interested bodies.

Greece was again on our agenda, with a parliamentary hearing on Tuesday; and today the 27 finance ministers will meet to decide how much money we need in the new (and, we hope, definitive) bail out fund. Ireland announced the date of its referendum on the treaty change needed to set this fund up; I imagine they will vote in favour, since otherwise the country does not qualify to be a beneficiary from it.

The European People’s Party and the Socialists voted in committee to approve the new draft deal with the USA on rules governing transfer of data on airline passengers flying into US airspace; most Liberal Democrats still believe they fall short of what is needed to ensure privacy, but I reckon we will be outvoted when it comes to the floor of the House.

We were outvoted again on the international trade committee, where the two major parties decided against referring the ACTA (Anti Counterfeiting Trade Agreement) to the European Court of Justice for their opinion. Liberal principle is often a dry rock.

Thursday morning I hosted a breakfast for those interested in cloud computing (see my column in Liberal Democrat News) at which Commissioner Kroes spoke. At lunchtime I voted in Parliament on (to give you an idea of the range of matters we deal with) trade in rubber; rights of airline passengers; the EU refugee fund; export of dual use goods; financial derivatives trading; exposure of workers to electromagnetic fields; intergovernmental co-operation on excise duties; budgetary matters; the setting up of a special committee on organised crime; relations with Belarus, Serbia, Kosovo, Montenegro and Turkey; EU citizenship; the European Investment Bank, and corporate governance. It’s all in a day’s work.

On Friday I was in Barcelona to speak at a conference on the Arab Spring with Liberals from North Africa

There were two big items of controversy this week. An invitation to former IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn, currently being investigated on sex crimes charges, to take part in a debate on the economy on the European Parliament’s premises next week raised the eyebrows of many and the ire of some. It was soon withdrawn after complaints to Parliament’s President (the Speaker). And remarks by Foreign policy supremo Catherine Ashton following the shooting of three children at a Jewish school in France were seized on and twisted by Israel’s defence minister to suggest that Ashton was comparing the shootings to what is happening in Gaza. Members of Parliament’s foreign affairs committee, obtaining a transcript of the remarks, soon realised this was not at all Ashton’s intention and expressed their support for her. What really angered Israel was Ashton’s signing on Monday of EU aid packages for Palestine providing €22 million for a waste-water treatment plant on the West Bank and €13 million for improvements to a trading point linking the Gaza Strip to the world beyond it.

I was in Brussels on Monday where among other things I addressed and answered questions from 40 or more Liberal Democrat MPs from the Netherlands. (Sadly I could not imagine that UK LD MPs would organise such a collective fact-finding visit, though it is common among German, Danish or Dutch Liberals). On Tuesday I went to Slovakia on EU Liberal Democrat party business but was back in time to speak at a celebration of the 200th anniversary of the Constitution of Cadiz, Europe’s first real Liberal constitution. Yesterday I was in London for meetings and to speak at the Kettners’ monthly Liberal lunch. Today I have my Brussels and constituency staff teams together for a reflection session.

Foreign affairs ministers meet today to discuss further sanctions against Iran. Last Saturday Iran’s banks were disconnected from SWIFT (the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Transactions), an unprecedented step with any country. On Wednesday Parliament heard from the UN’s special envoy about the situation in Camp Ashraf in Iraq, where members of Iran’s opposition shelter. Ministers will consider today targetted sanctions against another twenty or so individuals in Iran deemed responsible for human rights abuses.

Ministers may also give the go ahead for targetted strikes against pirate ships and equipment in Somalia, about which I was interviewed at 7.30 am today on the BBC’s World Service.

We voted to simplify laws governing cross border inheritances. We approved a report by my Lib Dem colleague Chris Davies which supports broadly the Commission’s 2050 roadmap to a low carbon economy; we now await its approval by the Council of Ministers. And we approved a deal with the USA and Canada which should bring an end to the ‘beef wars’: we will continue to ban hormone treated beef but in recompense we will increase quotas for imports of high quality north american beef.

The European People’s Party attacked the Liberals by forcing onto the agenda a debate about the refusal of Netherlands Liberal prime minister Mark Rutte to condemn a website (set up by a party on which his government relies for support) which invites people to denounce illegal immigrants and raise complaints about eastern European immigrants. Liberals joined the condemnation of Rutte, of course, but pointed out the hypocrisy of the pot calling the kettle black from a party which says nothing about Sarkozy’s attacks on immigrants and refuses to criticise the Hungarian government’s attacks on civil liberties.

At the European Council the 27 finance ministers have been continuously preoccupied by Greece. They met by videoconference last Friday and in person on Monday and Tuesday before approving on Wednesday the second Greek bailout (about €130 bn, with substantial private sector write downs). They also examined the situation in Hungary again and told Budapest that unless it corrects its structural deficit by June it will lose €500 million in EU Cohesion funding. At the end of the month they hope to agree on the size of the financial ‘firewall’ fund, the European Stability Mechanism, and on how much each member state will contribute to it. Among the other Council formations the Home Affairs ministers adopted new laws to tackle the trafficking of small arms and the Foreign ministers resolved to appoint a new EU High Representative for human rights, possibly by the end of June.

Commissioner Malmstrom (Home affairs, LD, Sweden) published a Bill (draft directive) to co-ordinate national measures to freeze and confiscate the assets of criminal syndicates. The UN estimates that returns on crime may account for 3.6% of global GDP, or over US$ 2 trillion, of which law enforcers succeed in freezing or confiscating less than one tenth. Commissioner Hahn (Regional policy, EPP, Austria) steered through the College of Commissioners a proposal to combine (and simplify) the provisions of five EU funding streams - the regional development fund, the social fund, the cohesion fund, the agriculture and rural development fund and the maritime and fisheries fund - into one Common Strategic Framework to allow for bids for any one project to seek support from more than one fund. Commissioner Hedegaard (Climate policy, EPP, Denmark) is spearheading the Commission’s drive to incorporate policies on land use into the EU’s climate change policies. And Commissioner Piebalgs (Development aid, EPP, Latvia) drew the attention of the World Water Forum in Marseilles to the success of the eight year old European Water Initiative in helping to reach the MIllenium Development Goal on access to drinking water five years before the UN deadline, though the Goal for access to sanitation has not yet been achieved.

Parliament’s political groups met this week to prepare for next week’s plenary session in Brussels. Some committees also met. National parliamentarians from the 27 member states came to Brussels on Monday to discuss the fisheries policy with MEPs and the Commissioner responsible for its execution.

All the political groups discussed the proposed Anti Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. In view of the strong reaction it has encountered in the member states and in the USA and other signatory countries from citizens who fear its possible impact on internet freedom, MEPs were rather relieved that the Commission has kicked it into the long grass by referring it to the European Court of Justice for a legal opinion. We may do the same, though the questions Parliament would ask the Court might probe more deeply into its possible impact. It’s not the goal of ACTA which worries us, but possible unintended consequences of the way it might be implemented, such as denial of internet access to citizens who breach its provisions.

At the inter-parliamentary meeting on fisheries there was impassioned debate between those who care for the fishermen and those who care more for survival of fish species. Commissioner Damanaki (Soc, Greece) stressed that the deadline of 2015 by which stocks must be managed under the maximum sustainable yield principle is not negotiable. French, Greek and Spanish MPs want the deadline extended. The Commissioner also insisted on a ban on discarding fish overboard.

My week started at 0525 hrs on Monday when I climbed off of a flight from Abidjan to Brussels, where I’d spent the weekend debating Liberalism with African MPs. From there I took a Eurostar to London to meet potential donors to the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party. Back in Brussels from Tuesday to Thursday my agenda consisted mainly of meetings with visitors (the Speaker of the UN General Assembly, human rights activists from Vietnam and Azerbaijan, representatives of the Women Liberal Democrats); of speeches (two on climate change at environmental conferences, one to students from the university of Westminster) and meeting fire officers who were in Brussels to discuss the establishment of a European network at a meeting hosted by Cllr Doris Ansari of Cornwall who is a member of the EU’s Committee of the Regions).

The European Commission announced that it is not satisfied with the evasive answers Hungary has given to its questions about infringements on EU norms (see recent newsletters) and intends to issue reasoned opinions, the next stage in a legal process which could end in court action. It is also threatening to delay an IMF loan to the country if the Hungarian government does not put its house in order. At its meeting on Wednesday the College of Commissioners also adopted a Communication on the implementation

of EU law which points out inter alia to the member states how much their failure to implement some of the laws they have agreed costs EU citizens and businesses.

In a piece of good news for my constituency the Commission also approved a zero interest loan of €272 million from the Italian government to Agusta Westland for the development of the new medium weight AW 169 helicopter.

Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding (Chr Dem, Luxembourg) used the occasion of international women’s day to annouce plans to propose legislation to get more women onto companies’ boards, since her attempts to persuade them have not worked.

The home affairs ministers from the 27 countries met on Wednesday to discuss border management in Greece and the delayed accession of Bulgaria and Romania to the passport-free travel area created under the Schengen Convention. The 27 Environment ministers meet today.

Progress with the second support package for Greece, agreed by eurozone finance minsters last Tuesday, was reviewed at a meeting yesterday just before the European Council (heads of state and government ’summit’ meeting). Despite some worryingly right wing noises from christian democrat finance minister Wolfgang Schauble and others in Germany suggesting that Greece should be forced out of the euro, the majority believes a default and the ensuing uncertainty would cause more problems than it would solve. Denmark’s prime minister, who chairs the Council for the first half of this year, told us as much at a big dinner hosted by a leading Brussels think tank on Wednesday evening. But the summit which started last night and continues today is focussed more on how to secure economic growth. Governments recognise that their actions have not matched their rhetoric hitherto and are expected to pledge to do better; yet it seems they cannot even sort out a spat between the UK, France and Germany about which country should host the new EU Patents Court, though the absence of an EU-wide patent is estimated to be costing EU businesses £425,000 a day! 25 of the 27 EU member states will also sign the new budgetary responsibility pact and commit themselves to increasing the bail-out fund for countries in trouble: the UK and the Czech Republic have opted out. The European Parliament looks likely to propose a longer time period for the European Commission to consider member states’ budget plans each autumn and a form of legal protection for countries facing bankruptcy, like that for companies in receivership.

Liberal prime ministers, DPMs and leading Commissioners discussed these issues at a lunch I hosted yesterday in advance of the summit. We also discussed ACTA, the Anti Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, which has aroused concern among internet users everywhere. A petition presented to Parliament this week at a major conference with standing room only has been signed by two and a half million people. I have received over 4,000 emails about it in my constituency office. Such is the level of protest that the Commission has referred the agreement to the European Court of Justice to ask if it breaches fundamental rights. In a separate case, the Court ruled on 16 February (similarly to a judgment in November of last year) that social network providers cannot be obliged by governments to prevent illegal downloads or piracy of films or music. The judges argue inter alia that the protection of copyright must be balanced against the freedom to receive and share information.

The highlight of Parliament’s week was a bravura performance by Italian prime minister Mario Monti, a former EU Comissioner, who outlined the steps his government is taking to put the country’s finances back in order. Far reaching structural reforms are expected to balance the budget by the end of next year. Monti urged EU countries to accompany financial austerity with more emphasis on policies for economic growth through trade.

I was interviewed by BBC TV’s weekly The Record: Europe programme about Greece’s debt crisis and its impact on the Euro. (It is the BBC’s only real attempt to cover the EU yet is to be axed in June in favour of a monthly programme to be recorded in London.) We had debated Greece’s situation in the Chamber a few hours earlier in the debate on the preparation of the next meeting of the European Council (the heads of state and government of the EU’s member states). I argued for a rescue since Greece’s parliament voted by a healthy margin to back a painful set of austerity measures last Sunday. I also recall the times before the euro, when countries engaged in competitive devaluations against each other, making trade a risky business. It is all too easy to forget how much the euro has contributed to trade and growth on our continent, which is why it is the world’s second largest reserve currency (accounting for 26.5% of global foreign currency reserves compared to 4.2% for sterling).

Since Parliament was to debate the situation in Syria, the Liberal Group invited to Strasbourg Fawaz Tello, a member of the opposition Syrian National Council, and blogger Dany Abdul Dayem, who called for help from the international community, even if only in enforcing a no fly zone to prevent the army attacking citizens and putting pressure on Russia not to supply arms to Assad. The Foreign Affairs Committee later heard evidence from France’s foreign minister about action in the UN. I am not at all sure that the reports in the western media are reliable; there are big oil interests at stake here.

The chorus of concern about recent developments in Hungary was reflected in a resolution adopted in Parliament this week backing the Commission’s legal action against the country and the moves by Media Commissioner Neelie Kroes (Netherlands, Lib Dem) to press for guarantees of media freedom.

I met US Ambassador Bill Kennard to discuss the Anti Counterfeiting Trade Agreement and the re-negotiated provisions for the exchange of Passenger Name Recognition data on air travellers. I think Parliament will likely agree to the former but may refer the latter once more to the European Court of Justice for its opinion, since even the new agreement appears to breach our data protection laws. I spoke on both issues in meetings of the Liberal Group.

Yesterday morning I hosted a breakfast for colleagues at which chess champion Garry Kasparov outlined his programme for introducing chess in primary schools. Last night I met Germany’s new (Liberal) EU Affairs Minister, Michael Link. Today I am in London for a strategy meeting of the UK Liberal Democrat MEPs. Tomorrow I take a break during a one week parliamentary recess so will write again in a fortnight’s time.

Before I sign off, let me share my favourite new acronym: FATCA. It stands for foreign account tax commitment acquittal and is an agreement signed last week between the five largest EU member states and the USA to share information on individuals’ bank accounts in the fight against tax evasion. So yes, it should have another ‘T’ at the end.

The EU is in a stand off with China over its new charges on airlines for their CO2 emissions. While the ECJ found in the EU’s favour against a challenge brought by US airlines, the Chinese government has simply forbidden its airlines to pay the tax. The International Air Transport Association is trying to bring the two sides together to agree a solution.

Greece was again on the EU’s agenda this week, for two reasons. The first is that it has started construction of a metal fence on its land border with Turkey to discourage illegal immigration. EU Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom (Sweden, LD) frostily rejected a call from Greece to bear half the cost of the construction. The second is the ongoing debt saga. Finance ministers from the eurozone countries met in Brussels last night following an agreement on Wednesday by Greece’s three coalition partners to the second bailout plan which involves cuts in private sector wages and pensions, government spending cuts of 1.5% of GDP and cuts in civil service numbers. (24 hours earlier, when Liberal Democrat MEPs had been in Athens, such an outcome had looked highly improbable.)

Agriculture Commissioner Dacian Ciolos (Romania, EPP) came to speak to the EP’s Liberal Group on Wednesday. He outlined plans to promote exports of food products (through food quality schemes and other measures first suggested in a Green Paper last June). Though we were sceptical of spending more to support farmers, he pointed out that the EU’s agricultural exports now almost equal those of the USA, supporting over four million jobs and representing 6% of the EU’s GDP.

The European Aviation Safety Agency this week ordered checks on the wings of all Airbus A380 aircraft. Those which have flown more than 1300 flights must be checked within two months, since cracks were discovered on the wings of an A380 in this category. The checks will involve some 68 aircraft. The wings are made mainly in the UK.

I was pleased to welcome to Brussels this week UK Transport Minister Norman Baker MP, over for talks with Climate Change Commissioner Connie Hedegaard (Denmark, EPP); David Chalmers of the Kaleidoscope Trust, an international pressure group campaigning for LGBT rights in developing countries, who I took to see Development Aid Commissioner Andris Piebalgs (Latvia, officially EPP but really a Lib Dem); Jayne Bressington, a constituent campaigning for EU action on GIST cancers; and Andrew Wigley, a former staffer of mine who went on to have an illustrious career in the international business world and is now, at the age of 40 and to my great satisfaction, considering a move into politics.

Regards
Graham