Plenary Session Strasbourg 22nd - 23rd & 25th -26th Oct 2012

Plenary Session            Strasbourg                22nd - 23rd & 25th -26th Oct 2012 

If this seems a rather strange heading well, it was a strange week. You see, Strasbourg is normally a matter of 12 weeks (Mon - Thurs) once a month. This is by order of the treaty and now enshrined in law. Parliament being in recess for August poses a problem in accommodating the 12 monthly sessions, solved by having two sessions in Sept. But some MEPs dislike travelling twice in the month to Strasbourg, esp we Brits, there being no airline to carry us in one hop from anywhere in then UK. So a gallant Tory, Ashley Fox came up with the solution. Let’s have two in one week, Monday & Tuesday then Thursday & Friday, each to be officially two sessions, thus satisfying the law.

So it came to pass, and here I am on Friday afternoon, at 3.30pm, writing this, when I usually do it on Thursday. Do I like the arrangement? As a result I get home at 11.30 pm tonight, if I'm lucky, because I stayed for all the votes this lunchtime, which is more than many MEPs did. Actually, I think I'd rather get home on Thursday, leaving Friday clear; the extra week is not really material.

In any case, would you believe, this week has gone ahead but the Court is still considering the issue. So the whole thing could be thrown out, after letting it happen once, and revert to normal. That could not possibly be the reason for the lop-sided voting lists of this week of two sessions could it? Perish the thought, but see next para.

There are 760 MEPs and today's voting record shows that there were up to 540 voting today. Earlier in the week the figures are 650 plus. Draw your own conclusions.

All this is compounded by the collapse of the ceiling of the Brussels debating chamber; you have probably read about this in the press. The same thing happened in Strasbourg two years ago. Wonderful! I mean, there we have St Paul's Cathedral, completed in 1710 and still in one piece, with numerous other examples of the same era to be seen across Europe, none of them built of reinforced concrete, steel skeletons & stainless steel, and not a JCB in sight.

 Because of this modernistic jerry building, closing the debating chamber in Brussels, the Conference of Presidents (!) decided to transfer as much business as possible to Strasbourg. So we had extra voting this week. Why not, after all that's what we are paid for. So why did they not spread it out during the week?  Sorry, I mean over the two official sessions of this week. What they actually did was to have two long voting sessions on Tuesday, one in the morning (ie coming up to lunch-time), the other in the evening, ie at 6.00 pm. (There is never a vote on Monday because it is so difficult getting to Strasbourg that hardly anyone is there before 5.00/ 6.00pm.) We then had more votes on Thursday, when the attendance was similar to Tuesday, and on Friday, with the figures shown above.

The Friday attendance was not just because of the day but also reflects interest in the topics. Let me bore you with Friday's list; "Human rights in the United Arab Emirates, Discrimination against girls in Pakistan, situation in Cambodia, Energy efficient labelling programs for office equipment, Markets in financial instruments, (2 versions), 2012 priorities, EU- Russia trade, elections in Belarus, elections in Georgia.

Of the rest of voting two items stand out. On Thursday we voted on the Bauer report. This was adopted by 596 - 56 and so paves the way for the compulsory giving of aid in other countries to those who require it. That's always been the case, but by the British consulate aiding a British passport holder, ditto French consulate helping French people as son on. This report makes it compulsory for the UK embassy or consulate to help EU citizens, whether UK or not. The same will apply across the EU range of member states. Think about it.

The other report of note was to vote on the budget. There were 113 budget lines to vote on, although some were taken out as superfluous, when the previous one was adopted. Among these there were16 lines showing a decrease, 6 were adopted and 5 were overtaken by the previous vote, noted above, the rest were outvoted.

Cue David Cameron. Remember, he is in favour of our continued membership of the EU, he keeps on saying so. That means, as a democrat, that he holds the EU to be democratic. Well, we all have our own views on that but there is one certain aspect of this. The European Parliament is composed exclusively of elected members, including your humble servant. But D. Cameron is to try to reduce the budget, with increases, which has just been voted in by the European Parliament, the only democratic element of the EU!

Derek Clark    MEP                                     Strasbourg  26thOct 2012.

  

Strasbourg Commentary Employment Committee 8th/9th October 2012

Monday In order to cope with growing anti- EU feeling, I suppose, the
president of the committee suggested that the EU should use a "Green
Card". In this National governments would be invited to ask the Commission
to propose Regulations and Directives of their choice, to turn it all on
its head. What would D. Cameron make of that?

At least we might get something original. I have remarked before that the
same old plans keep on getting trotted out, especially on coping with the
financial crisis. Well, this week we had a debate on "Erasmus for All".
This is a long standing program and it is now suggested that several other
similar programs be rolled into it, at a cost of 19.1 billion Euros!
Comments for its content included,-

adult learning, apprenticeships, like-long learning, adult learners, youth
employment schemes, adult citizenship, youth forums, youth work, training
at all levels, sport, vocational education, visits.  Anything new there?

In a debate on the financial situation it emerged that members were very
worried, -there is s serious social situation developing! Nothing is being
done, could have told them that, but better that they say it for
themselves. Likewise the remark by a senior member that 80% of people say
we are wrong, we must do something about it!

At the end of the day the debate was on, "...exposure of workers to risks
from physics agents". By which they mean electromagnetic fields, why they
can not say so is beyond me. This includes MRI scanning but at first
attempt, in 2005, they set exposure limits so low that MRI scanning would
stop. Fortunately, they invited experts from two London Hospitals, St
Thomas and Barts, to address the committee. These two managed to convince
the committee to revise their ideas. It was debated again a few months ago
when all seemed well, but I still contacted the London experts. As a
result Dr Keevil of Kings College, a St Thomas consultant, kindly made
time to see me, when in Brussels with other experts. He gave a guarded OK
to the revised document.  I'm glad of that because more amendments have
now appeared which foul it up again. Hence my contribution of today, on my
web site soonest. If that appears rushed it is because this was the last
item of the day, we were well over time, the translators were beyond their
hours of duty, so we all had to be very brief.

Tuesday A long voting session, scheduled for 2 hours, completed with half
an hour to spare. Included no less than 8 awards of money under the
Globalisation Adjustment Fund, all nodded through without comment. The GAF
is used to help displaced workers to re-train and find new work when a
company closes. Never anything for a UK situation, but then, its up to the
government of the country concerned to claim.

The Erasmus project was voted in, of course, 40 votes to 1.

The vote on the "Economic and Monetary Union" report, commented on above,
came out at 27 - 16, a very unconvincing "yes", given the usual majorities
recorded.

If anyone queries the length of time to vote on these reports please
realise that after the GAF awards there were 6 more reports each
containing multiple amendments, up to 170 or more, all of which require a
vote.

Finally, you will see my letters to the papers on my web site. One of my
recent letters was quoted in part by the Derby Telegraph, extract below.
It all helps.


Derek Clark   MEP                               Brussels 9th Oct 2012

MEPs locally  6th Oct 2012

RAILWAYS - Euro MP calls for review of rail contract decision (Derby
Evening Telegraph, 6/10/2012, p.6): "A EURO MP has become the latest to
demand the Government looks again at its decision not to award Derby
train-maker Bombardier a lucrative contract following the recent furore
over its handling of the bidding process for the West Coast Main Line rail
franchise. (...) Derek Clark, UK Independence Party MEP, said: "This is a
public procurement situation echoing the mismanagement of Thameslink.
"That contract should have gone to Bombardier of Derby not Siemens of
Germany. (...) "Once again, straightforward British bidding has lost out
to EU smoke and mirrors so our operators or manufacturers don't get a look
in."

EMF Directive Amendments Render MRI Scanners Useless - Derek Clark

http://www.derekclarkmep.org.uk/my-videos/

Strasbourg Commentary Plenary Session 10 - 13 Sept 2012

Strasbourg Commentary               Plenary Session          10 - 13 Sept 2012

Barroso you will have seen comments in the press about his speech of Weds morning. They  are not exaggerated, he is on a mission, they all are. Nothing will stop them making this a Single European State in one form or another. They will go on towards this aim. Dismiss any thoughts of, "changing the EU from within". This never was an option, now that should be clear to all and we must convince people of this. I, for one, have heard enough of the apologists saying that we must be in it to change it. We must tell the truth, again, that this is an unstoppable steamroller and that the only way is out.

From my notes of Barroso's 42 minute speech of Weds morning.

*(justifying the last 50 years) "It took the UK 150 years to double its GDP"

*The Commission takes the lead in sustainability/equality/ fairness/ growth

*Greece is a turning point

* the ECB will not finance Governments

* the Commission rules, with European Parliament oversight

* the FTT will cover banks and financial institutions need to be brought together

* there must be a Banking Union.

*There will be  Federation of nation States, guide for years to come, NOT a superstate!

* Sovereignty must be shared

*It must be a Union WITH the member states, not OF the member States.

*It needs a new treaty!

* needs a new EMU

* All nationalists and populists are bad!

*Especially, the Commission has today adopted EPP, European Political Parties, (which our party voted against last conference against the advice of those who actually take part in this European Parliament. It looks like we were right, if it means we will not be able to take part in the next European Parliament Elections unless we are in an EPP. Rather than join one we should start one, to preserve our main claim to electoral success)

This was followed by a round from all group leaders. Unusually, after Barosso Had summed up there was another round from group leaders and another Barosso summing up, 3 hours altogether. We wonder if this was a one off, or the shape of things to come.  

For the S & D Swaboda remarked that the EU was to be an emerging state, not a submerging one!

Verhofstadt, (leader of the Lib-Dems and former Belgian Premier) said it is not yet a federation and it must be a political entity, not an economic one.

**At this point the President interrupted proceedings to inform us of the decision of the German Constitutional Court, that the complaint had been rejected and so the ECB will go on. Some UK newspapers recorded that this was greeted by a standing ovation; no it was not.. The leftie side of the house gave it very good (seated) applause, our side of the house remained quiet.

Voting.  Thursday, the vote, "Proposal for a European Banking Union" passed with a large majority. Once implemented it will be the end of the Bank of England.

Wednesday. Votes on 4 Fishing reports to which I spoke on Tuesday evening, text and video on website, my speech being a catch-all because the 4 reports were lumped together as a Joint Debate (not uncommon). Of interest was that I was "blue carded" ie a blue card was waved to ask me a question. This was from Chris Davies (.Lib-Dem, North West) a leader, of sorts in the fishing debacle. He was trying to drive a wedge between UKIP MEPs  by asking about which UKIP MEPs supported him (ie wanted to preserve UK fishing) and who did not. I gave him no satisfaction in my reply so he crossed the floor of the house to sit beside me and bend my ear for 5 mins or so! All of which is because I, and the rest of us, want the CFP abolished, he wants to reform it.

Lastly a bit of humour. Today Lamberts, rapporteur of the "European Venture Capital Funds" report asked for a postponement of the final vote, adoption, of his report. That was, he said, because he had failed to get agreement with the Council on his report. He was going to ask, he said, if Council would agree today, in the chamber, but there was no one of the Council there! I counted up. There were just 12 Council Assistants present, no one in the front 3 rows where the actual Council members sit. So after Barosso's strident comments about a Federal Europe not one minister of any EU country could be bothered to attend Parliament, which is supposed to work in harmony with the Council.

Ís that a sign of Federal things to come?

Just to round of, a cutting from the press summary we get every day.-

Immigration - Law change could mean exodus of Russians to UK (Derby Evening Telegraph, p.14): "THE news that we could see a large exodus of Russian citizens coming into the UK is worrying. A law change in Latvia would see the right to citizenship handed to the children and grandchildren of all Latvians sent by Stalin and his Soviet successors into exile in Siberia. Many could end up in this country, as Latvians are entitled to live and work in the UK. (...). This law change could see the Latvian population in our towns and cities swell even more - we must regain control of our borders and getting out of the EU is the only way to do that. (Derek Clark UKIP MEP for the East Midlands)

Derek Clark MEP                                                       Strasbourg 13th Sept 2012

Joint Debate,- Fisheries

Speech to Parliament                             Tuesday 11th Sept 2012

Joint Debate,-  Fisheries

With fish stocks in serious decline in Europe's rich fishing grounds the CFP is a failure. And yet these reports are laced with the same old Euro-speak,- regulation, restrictions, prohibit.

Before the CFP most European fishermen, unhampered by bureaucratic interference, had been fishing responsibly, looking after their own waters and therefore handing on viable fisheries down the generations.

But the EU destroyed this culture of care and so now we have rules about Total Permissible Catch and the wretched discard policy which has decimated stocks.

If you don't like lessons from the past then try the present. Norway and Iceland still record good catches and find many species spawning well. But then, they ban discards and other destructive EU measures which, as noted in these reports, have reduced EU fishing fleets.

The UK fishing fleet is barely half its former size and so much of the fish sold in the UK now comes from Iceland. What an indictment of the CFP

Derek Clark   MEP                                                     Strasbourg 11th Sept 2012

Listen to me on the BBC Politics Show

Northampton Commentary                                                  19th July 2012

My commentary from the Employment Committee Meeting of 10th and 11th July
2012, last before the summer break, did not appear; it was a complete
mess.  This was scheduled for Tuesday 10th July 2012 starting in the
morning, going on all day and then for the morning of Wednesday 11th July
2012.  Voting in our committee usually takes place on the morning of the
second day, in this case, Wednesday11th July, but they brought that
forward to the Tuesday morning.

I had already arranged to travel on the Tuesday morning to get there at
midday and so to Committee in the afternoon.  I was not prepared to alter
travel arrangements to get there on the Monday, which I had set aside to
produce my latest column for the Lincolnshire Echo, due in that day.

So I missed the Voting and attended the afternoon.  Cyprus having just
taken over the Presidency their Minister for Labour addressed the
Committee.  For an hour, including questions from the floor, she went on
with all the usual platitudes.  “We must introduce programmes to boost
Employment, to help the Economy, we need growth....”, but without any
specific plan to resolve any of it.

I needed to take a break after that, I had other business to attend to and
went back in good time for the last Debate on the list, “Public
Procurement”.  I envisaged making another comment or two about Bombardier.
 Imagine my feelings when I got to the Committee Room with an hour to
spare before close of business to find that they had finished, all desks
were being cleared.  I then discovered that the Wednesday morning session
was cancelled.

I was rather annoyed about that.  After all, if you have read my previous
Commentary from Strasbourg you will know that this Committee had a Voting
Session of two hours during Plenary Session (on Thursday morning) taking
us out of attending the Plenary.  That was only four days before Committee
and they could have done all those votes on the Wednesday morning instead
of cancelling that session.

As a result of that shambles I have otherwise nothing to tell you about
the last Committee before the Summer recess.   I therefore offer you some
light Summer viewing.  Please see below two links, the first of which is
from the Politics Show of last Sunday with me and Bill Newton Dunn.  I’m
not particularly happy with my effort but you can make your own mind up.
The second link is from the EFD Group with a very great number of videos
and other material.  Enjoy!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01ks047/Sunday_Politics_East_Midlands_15_07_2012
(View this at 31.30 along on the scroll bar on the video)

Link to videos/commentaries/news etc for UKIP MEPS
http://www.efdgroup.eu/in-your-country/united-kingdom-ukip.html


 

Strasbourg Commentary Plenary session 2nd - 5th July 2012

Strasbourg Commentary      Plenary session           2nd - 5th July 2012

Tuesday   The day started with a review of yet another summit. All the usual comments, but I did not hear Verhofstadt rant on about the "Community Method"; I might have lost concentration. He did complain that Parliament was not included in the summit meetings, only the Council. The proposal for action was widely supported but rejected on procedural grounds, but a new treaty is on the way.

Barroso said that the Financial Transaction Tax is to go ahead. Further remarks of his are included in my video recorded Wednesday morning, on my web site soonest. He had a real go at the Tories so these comments about voting might interest you.

There was the "Single European Railway area", extending the original directive of 1991. In Amendment 104 premises not used for 3 years will be forcibly sold off or converted to other rail use. That is not the same as "Compulsory Purchase" which, in the UK has to go through due process, this will just happen, by order of. A communist style approach to property, where UKIP voted to delete the amendment while the Tories voted the other way.

In any case this report has caused friction between France and Spain over whether there is a "level playing field" when it comes to bidding for contracts. Tell that to Bombardier! We, UKIP, also tabled an amendment to reject the whole report which we lost (Tories abstaining) but without it the report would have gone through with no vote at all!

In two other votes the Tories were split. On" Strategies in the Mediterranean" 10 voted against, 13 abstained, while on the "Attractiveness of investing in Europe" 11 voted against, 6 abstained.

Another report introduces, "a new 112 service for citizens", 112 being the European version of 999 calls. This is the eCall.

In event of road accident, an eCall-equipped vehicle will automatically trigger an emergency call. Even if passengers cannot speak, eCall creates a voice link to Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP)

It sends an emergency message, known as the minimum set of data (MSD), including key information about the accident, such as,-

time, accurate location, driving direction (resulting from accurate satellite-based data) and vehicle description and eCall can also be activated manually.

Mobile operators will have to upgrade systems

Vehicle manufacturers will have include eCall modules

Member States will have to upgrade PSAPs to handle voice and data

Effectively the overall system would have total tracking capabilities of all eCall vehicles, regardless of emergency activation

Thus, satellite tracking of cars for emergency. Fine, except that the tracking will be continuous, with drivers not able to turn the transponder off. So, 'big brother" will be able to determine where any car is at any time and its speed. "Spy in the Sky" is coming, probably on new cars at first and then retro-fitted to older cars.  Who will have this information? Good question, but I can't help thinking of the casual way the DVLA will sell information on car ownership to almost anyone, as those who have been fined by a cowboy parking company will know. 

Wednesday  No less than 8 reports on farming and the CFP voted on today, with 2 on animal welfare. Biggest vote was on ACTA, the Anti Counterfeiting Trade Agreement with many other countries across the world which has brought the most enormous lobby. Like all MEPs I must have received 1000+ emails all asking for a "No" vote. Counter productive of course. Impossible to read them all so delete. My computer had at least 750 in one continuous list, did I lose other messages as I whizzed through them?

In the event this was defeated by 39 votes to 478 and already some thank-you emails have come in. However, all is not clear. There was first a move to have this postponed by members who reckoned on getting a ruling from the European Court of Justice. This proposal was rejected, 255 for & 420 against. We voted to take it now, the Tories voted to postpone. In the vote on the actual report we voted against, the Tories abstained, as did Labour and lib-Dems. In summing up the Commission said that they would now take this to the ECJ for a ruling, as they would not have done so if the vote had gone the other way. So ACTA is dead, unless the ECJ perform a revival.

Member of the Civil Liberties committee, UKIP MEP Gerard Batten said today,

"UKIP are in favour of internet freedom and against the criminalisation of offences in ACTA under article 23.

Genuine copyright and intellectual property rights must be protected, but the EU is building up its own police state.

Criminalisation opens up all types of sinister possibilities to prevent free speech, dissent and alternative points of view.

The three Establishment parties in the UK are guilty of rank hypocrisy over ACTA because they allowed this treaty to pass through Westminster committees in 2011.

They said it had no political or legal importance, which was false. It was only when the media spotlight turned on ACTA that they changed their tune. Their actions on ACTA are not credible, the LibLabCon are hypocrites and cannot be trusted on this matter. "

There was also a report on the preliminaries for the 2013 budget where the Budget Committee want a 6.8% increase! Our EFD amendment to reduce the budget was defeated by 112 to 552 votes, while the ECR amendment to freeze the budget lost by 102 to 554 votes. At least the Tories supported us on these votes but the whole report was adopted by 540 to 93. So our contribution will go up again.     

I need to close my commentary today, Wednesday, because tomorrow will be impossible. The morning has but two reports, The Rio+20 Summit and Responsibilities under the CITES convention (Endangered species) with a reduced voting list. I shall miss all debate because, unusually, the Employment Committee is meeting at 9.30 am for a 2 hour voting list. Committees are not supposed to meet in plenary sessions but this was allowed. This will take me up to our own vote meeting for plenary followed by the plenary vote itself. That ends the morning and I have to be away to catch my flight straight after.   

Derek Clark   MEP                                           4th June 2012