Banking reform and immigration issues lead as MEPs return to European Parliament

By Graham Watson, on Sunday, September 5, 2010

It is easy to knock the European Parliament, as one of my new Dutch colleagues did in an interview with one of his national newspapers this summer, just a year after taking up his seat; it is much harder to get down to the business of legislating, as one of my UK colleagues (also recently elected) has done very effectively in the supervision of the financial services industry.

What began as a set of very timid proposals from the European Commission last September in response to the recent banking crisis is soon to become a package of laws despite the initial resistance of some of the EU member states. As a result the banks and other financial speculators will be much better regulated and Josephine Public’s savings will be safer.

I returned to Parliament on Monday after one of my best summer breaks ever. On Tuesday I quizzed the Development Aid Commissioner at a committee hearing about aid to Pakistan (and told her to work harder with other Commissioners to design a credible policy to deal with the climate change which will make such natural disasters more frequent): on Wednesday I met Turkish Cypriot representatives to discuss the opening of direct trade links with the northern part of the island; on Thursday I went to a hearing entitled ‘A sustainable EU policy for the High North’ to learn about resources and people in the Arctic and how we might best preserve peace and prevent a power struggle for oil and gas, of which it has huge resources. In Parliament there is rarely a chance to ease oneself gently back in to a routine after the summer holiday. You hit the earth with a bump.

The European Commission held a ‘strategy session’ at Val Duchesse (the Belgian equivalent of Chequers) on Tuesday. They discussed the EU budget. The Union is about to begin another row about how to pay for what the member states decide needs doing at EU level. They also discussed the situation in France, where over 7,000 Bulgarian and Romanian citizens have accepted financial incentives to return to their home country.

France has expelled 1,310 others and cleared some 100 illegal Roma campsites. Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom (Sweden, Lib Dem) argued that to conform with EU law expulsion decisions should be issued in writing with leave given to appeal against them; that they should be based on identifiable threats to public order or unreasonable burdens on social services and that they should not target one particular ethnic group. Sarkozy’s populist action, designed to restore his opinion poll ratings, threatens to become a wider pogrom against the Roma which might be copied in Italy and elsewhere. Parliament will debate it next week.

UK Commissioner Catherine Ashton (foreign and security policy) is under attack from some MEPs for failing to respect gender balance in the new appointments to EU ambassadorial posts. The criticism may be justified, but since the appointments have not yet been announced it is a little too early to tell!

Socialist Group leader Martin Schulz held a press conference to remind people he exists and to promise an autumn of heated protest against Barroso’s right wing Commission, though the Socialist Group in Parliament is weaker than ever before. And Poland’s new president paid us a visit, though he came and left so quickly that few even caught a glimpse of him.

The parliamentary caravanserai is back on the move!

(image of Graham Watson by Salty1977 under the Creative Commons)