Strasbourg Commentary Plenary Session 24th – 27th Feb 2014

A short week for me, and others. Due to the Spring Conference in Torquay I am returning home on Wednesday.

Tuesday Votes on a report about countering violence against women, what for? Is violence of any sort, especially directed against women, not against the law in all countries. It is in the UK, what else do we need? But this was about FGM and that becomes a religious matter and, we think, best left to individual countries to sort out for themselves.

Plant breeding was also voted on with many amendments. Like others I have received emails about restrictions on seed varieties which have been around for ages, but the EU does not like them. Must be harmonised, you see.

Wednesday A very big voting session, well over an hour and a half. Two reports stand out.

There was the report on “eCall” in-vehicle systems. This sounds OK as it enables cars fitted with the system to be assisted in an emergency, (as all cars will be by EU law) without the driver calling rescue services. All cars will be fitted with an automatic device which will tell the police to send for assistance if you crash, even if all car occupants are rendered unconscious. That obviously means the police, or whatever agency, will have you pinpointed wherever you are at all times. How do you like that, big brother watching over you. From there to the device mentioned before, enabling the police to bring a car to a halt wherever it is, is but a step. The installed transmission system for the one is easily modified for the other.

Then came the McAvan vote on the Tobacco Directive. In voting sessions it has become very noticeable that the lists have been arranged so that reports with a lot of “RCV” votes are being located at the end of the vote session. An RCV is a vote made electronically and recorded, so that those who wish to see how we voted can do so. No problem, even when we get people asking why we voted a certain way, like the email I received last week. People keep an eye on things, quite right too.

But an RCV has another function. As well as signing in every day record is kept of one’s RCV votes. If an MEP fails to record half of the RCVs in any one day, and that happens for half the days over a period of time, we can be required to repay the money received under,” General Expenditure Allowance”. This is the funding for the office in the UK and all that goes with it; rent, ‘phone bill, purchase of computer, supplies, newspapers, periodicals and so on. A tidy sum.

It is not uncommon to see MEPs counting up the RCVs as we go along and leaving the chamber when the 50% has been reached. I don’t do that normally, not least because our assistants have spent hours over the paper work to advise us of our vote and I do not like to see that wasted. Their work is discussed in a voting meeting of the assistants and MEPs immediately prior to the voting session. Gerard, as our whip, will have spent at least a half hour before that with the assistants knocking it into shape. (Or, me when Gerard has not been present, a rarity).

Hence the comments above and the new-style placement of reports with lots of RCVs.

So, imagine our surprise when it went wrong on Wednesday. This was in the vote on the McAvan report. This has already been aired in a previous plenary session and it was up today for final vote. Our Vote list had only 3 votes,- 1, The text as a whole, 2 to adopt the Commission proposal and 3 to authorise legislation. Suddenly, as the vote was to start we were informed of a change. The committee responsible had earlier asked to submit the text to vote in several different amendments but this had been refused, all in one was ruled, votes as per above. Now, in the last hour before voting, an email had been circulated giving permission for the Text to be in several votes after all. But we did not have that information, de-valuing our votes. Remember, this has been the subject of acrimonious emails between MEPs and the vociferous smoking lobby over a period of time.

I do not believe our assistants were to blame. As noted above they were all busy with either Gerard, or all of us, in the vote meetings for at least the hour when the president’s email was sent out. In any case, in a previous voting session this month a rapporteur was furious that his request to speak before the final vote was taken. He had emailed the president’s office with the request before-hand but the president for that vote session had not received it, so the vote went ahead, ignoring the rapporteur’s wishes.

Can you believe that the outcome of important votes are subject to last minute emails, which require someone to be watching a computer all the time!

You should not be. Remember my video of a few weeks ago when I complained about the lack of transparency in the budget report which authorises the spending of billions of taxpayers money? Now we have fudged votes, the outcome of which will affect a great number of companies and traders. But don’t worry, “Its how we do things here”!

Our next group of MEPs will take up the fight I’m sure but, in the meanwhile, what about you? You are all dedicated to UKIP’s fight to get us out of this undemocratic mess but the great British public needs information, hence my commentaries. These are not confidential nor are they subject to copyright: they are ammunition. Use them in the pub, in letters to the papers, in chatting to your pals, but use them. Just get the facts right as written, that’s all.

And good luck

Derek Clark MEP Strasbourg 26^th Feb 2014

BRUSSELS COMMENTARY EMPLOYMENT COMMITTEE FEB 12TH – 13TH 2014

The Report on “Promoting inland waterway transport” was further debated and voted on. It was adopted by 34 to 3 votes. Some of our UKIP members have expressed concern about this, not least because the construction of HS2 will have an impact on the canals. Not sure there needs to be concern because this report is all about connecting the big rivers of Europe together. But wait and see. If you wonder if the rapporteur has sufficient knowledge of canal systems don’t worry. This is not really about the mechanics or geography of linking the waterways. It is about social provisions! They use much bigger barges over here so if some of them are taken out of service there will be less employment and therefore benefits will increase.

In the “Growth and Employment” debate it turns out that the UK is a stumbling block. Article 351 requires that ratification of this report must have a legal base and that will need a UK Parliamentary Bill to bring all the items it covers into one document. Apparently this can only happen once a year. Germany is in exactly the same position and both Germany and the UK have yet to reply, hence the slow delivery. I can’t help wondering what the situation would be if it was just the UK with this problem.

In the debate on “employment…. Role of the Troika £EC, Commission, IMF)”, an interesting comment was made. An MEP stated that the countries most heavily in debt, including Italy and Greece, had not been forced into accepting the bail-outs, or that they have been put upon in any way. They themselves had asked for intervention with massive loans. The speaker did not mention that duly elected Prime Ministers had been ejected from their positions and replaced by unelected bureaucrats.

There were 5 “Discharge” votes. That is, authorising expenditure after the money has been spent. If you ask why not before spending millions of public money, remember the comments I made a few months ago, and my intervention in the House. The budget was voted on last autumn but in such a way that it was impossible to know exactly what each amount was being spent on. When I complained that alterations to some amendments were made in such a way that it was impossible to relate the changes to the items listed I was told that, “this is how we do things”. Meanwhile the Auditors continue to refuse to sign the books off.

And so to, “conditions of Entry and resident of third country nationals”, meaning non-EU people. So please see this video of my contribution and the President’s comment in reply to me. In itself it is unusual to get such a response but I think you will guess what my reaction will be; http://www.ukipmeps.org/articles_794_EU-illegally-discriminating-against-Commonwealth-nationals.html

I hope you are not disappointed in me in not taking the chair of this committee. A presidential shortage occurred with the President herself absent, as were all but two deputies. One of these disappeared so one of the Committee secretarial staff came over to see me. The remaining deputy, who had taken then chair, was also about to depart. The rules require an authorised president to conduct committee meeting sand, in the absence of all elected deputies, that becomes the oldest member, i.e. Me! I declined with thanks and it passed to the next oldest. Just think of the fun I might have had, but I am not there to help them on their way.

Derek Clark MEP Brussels 13^th February 2014.

Strasbourg Commentary Plenary Session 3rd-6th Feb 2014

Strasbourg Commentary Plenary Session 3^rd-6^th Feb 2014

Monday Conflict of interests. Business starts at 5.00 pm on the Monday and I was down to speak about food labelling in the first debate of the evening but did not know exactly when, speakers list not published until just before start. However, the Employment Committee had called an emergency meeting starting at 7.00pm that evening. Committees are not supposed to meet in Strasbourg but the president of the Employment Committee is a formidable lady. Notice of this meeting did not appear in time to re-schedule my flight, due in Strasbourg at 6.30 pm. In the event I got to Committee in time to vote, but only because John had prepared my voting list and met me at the door. Then found I was not speaking after all, so no frantic dash from Committee to Parliament Chamber after all. A certain amount of flexibility is required in this place.

Tuesday We voted against their idea of better law making, but abstained on all parts of the “Roadmap against homophobia and discrimination”. We have no problem at all regards to varying sexual orientation but it’s simply, “live and let live”. We also voted against “Smart grids” for electricity supply. I hope all are aware that these are coming to a front door near you! They will not only tell the electricity company how much power each of your various devices are using but there is the potential for device control as well!

Don’t laugh about that. Only this week Commission News declares that in about six year’s time all vehicles will have remote control. No, not by you,- the driverless car-, but a device built in to all new cars allowing the Police to stop your car as you drive! They may well develop the technology but what rules and regs will there be? As to the consequences, use your imagination.

Wednesday We voted on an arms aid treaty and Protection about imports from non EU countries and about explosives for civil use. Then, the “Framework for climate and energy policies”, which degenerated into farce. Well over 150 amendments at the end of which there is the vote on adopting the “Committee Resolution”, passing which would send this on to the next stage. Here the rapporteur objected saying this should be referred back to committee. This is not unusual but there was a procedural problem. To ensure this went back to committee he had to rise and speak to say so, but, was not seen or heard by the president until the resolution vote itself was in progress. Result, according to rules, no chance, it goes on. He protested saying he had informed services as required and, failing that he was going to withdraw his name from the report. The vote was concluded among tumult.

The President ruled he had not risen to make his point before the vote started so he was out of order and that he had not asked for the floor before the vote started, which therefore went ahead, adopted by 341 to 263. Pandemonium.

Martin Callanan (Tory leader of the ECR) claimed that an email had been sent at 4.50 the previous day, asking for the floor. He went on to accuse the president, Mrs Podimata, of malpractice earlier in the week over a new time table for Strasbourg in 2015. He was ruled out of order. The vote stood with claims that it be re-run the following day but, this was the last vote of the day and by the time this was said many MEPs had left the chamber.

Thursday Yesterday’s events continued, except that there was no re-run of the last vote on Climate policies. One of our lady EFD number, not a Brit, sent a letter to the President of Parliament saying that the previous day was disgraceful, especially the conduct of the lady President of the day, Mrs Podimata. For once I disagreed with an EFD colleague.

My letter said that Mrs Podimata had kept an even tempo throughout ( not easy with Electronic votes by the dozen), that she had been proved right most times when challenged to hold an electronic vote to check her declaration of the result on show-of-hands, and that her own call for electronic votes had been justified when most of those showed a close result. This lady’s letter to the President of Parliament was duly amended.

I hope you will understand that I was more than annoyed when an email from a Brit (Tory) MEP came out accusing those on our side of the chamber always losing no opportunity of calling out anti-women comments whenever a voting dispute occurred. That is just not true, but not worth my time in responding, this time. We are under attack all the time, good.

Schultz himself took the chair for the first part of voting and explained that Mrs Podimata had acted properly throughout and that the rapporteur’s email asking for the floor had indeed, not reached her. Why, was not explained.

Votes today were the usual light weight stuff, situation in Egypt, Syria and so on. Of course it’s very serious for these people but they do not deserve EU interference. UKIP’s stance is much better. Never mind spending millions on foreign aid to India, etc, which does not need it, and of course we need border controls to stop mass migration, but genuine refugees from Syria are a different matter. When did Britain ever turn its back on genuine refugees who really do need someone to help them over a problem not of their making?

If you watch one of my last speeches you will see that I advocate British, West European Industry setting up businesses in Eastern Europe. This would first help these people, then see them on to greater prosperity, reducing the need for mass migration. After all, who really wants to leave their homeland if they can use their talents and live reasonable well there? What chance of success, none. Most industry is out for financial gain alone, and never mind anyone else.

We received a Maltese delegation in our EFD group this week. They are an amalgam of left and right, and totally fed up with the EU. They want to leave the EU as it conflicts with Malta’s written constitution. They hope to gain a seat in the Euro elections this May, perhaps two out of the six on offer. That would be an immense gain. Any chance that small countries like this could start to prise open the door?

See Paul Nuttall’s video on this link http://www.ukipmeps.org/articles_791_Employment-market-saturated-by-low-paid-foreign-workers.html

Finally, personal comment. I went out for dinner last evening in Strasbourg town centre, as I usually do on Wednesday evening, but found a disturbing new element. I used a restaurant close to the Cathedral which I have not used much before but saw something I had not seen before. All round that area there were small groups of people - twos, threes fours. Many with a dog, all with belongings in bags, sacks and so on. They were there for the night and seemed to be families together. One lot were under police questioning. Who were they, on this cold winter night?

I leave that with you.

Derek Clark MEP Strasbourg Feb 6th 2014

CAEF

Members may wish to know, if they didn’t already, that I’m also a Member of CAEF, The Campaign against Euro Federalism.  This is very strongly a trade union movement and it consistently speaks against our EU Membership.  Two of the best speeches condemning our membership I have ever heard were from Lord Peter Shore his widow later joined us.  The second being Bob Crowe of the RMT.  Each of them denounced the EU, the former in gentlemanly terms, the latter like a wrecking ball.   

I therefore receive the ‘Democrat’ every month and on the front page of the current issue it reports:-

·           Gallop Survey showed 19% of Greeks approved of the EU in 2013, and 21% of Cypriots.

·           Less than a third approve of the EU, in the UK, the Czech Republic and Sweden.

·           Spain showed a decrease in support from 59% to 27% last year.

·           Ireland went down from 70% to 47%.

All those are bail out countries but Sweden went down 17 points, Finland 14 points and Denmark 10 points.  The Netherlands down from 59% support to 48%. 

It also points out that support among the young in the countries so badly affected by the Euro has dropped by very significant figures. 

Now to quote some data from the last meeting of the Employment Committee which points out that SME’s are the backbone of the EU economy, 20.7 million SME’s provide 67% of private sector employment. 

It also points out that there is a drop in the EU among those who want to be self employed from 45% down to 37% in the last three years. 

50% say they cannot obtain sufficient information on how to start a business.  In that respect the report says that in Belgium it takes 4 days to set up a business but in Malta it is 40 days. 

It lists a whole range of policies which favour SME’s including innovation, competitiveness, internationalism, reducing bureaucracy etc etc.

It does point out that the unemployment rate among young Europeans, aged 15-24, has reached 23% and above 50% in those, “Members states hardest hit by the crisis”. 

This Employment Committee document goes on to worry about a huge brain drain but nowhere does it mention the adverse affect of the Euro currency.

Brussels Commentary Employment Committee Jan 22nd, 23rd 2014

Brussels Commentary Employment Committee Jan 22nd, 23rd 2014

Debates this week on eleven topics such as,-

*Economic and social aspects in the Annual Growth survey, 260 amendments and adopted by 32 to 3

*How can the EU create a hospitable environment for enterprises and new jobs

*Proposal for a directive for Seafarers

*Social Summit for Growth and Employment

*Directive to promote inland waterway transport

*Posting of workers

* Five discharges listed not debated. That's saying OK to spending already made.

Otherwise none of these topics were voted on this time while Votes were taken on a text on "Rights of Freedom of movement of workers", but without debate, adopted by 31 to 1

Finally, a debate and vote on, "Are tools in place to monitor the effectiveness of European Social Fund spending on Older Workers", which arose from the Auditors Special report. Adopted it by 33 to 2 without even offering me a slice of the Social Fund! So mine was one of the 2 votes against.

After all this a presentation by the Greek minister for Labour, Mr Yannis Vroutsis since it is the start of the Greek presidency and at the change all Committees get a visit by the appropriate minister.

He sounded just like his boss, the Greek premier a week earlier. The problems are not just of Greece, there is instability in the whole EU. Greece is now showing positive signs. In the last year employment has now stabilised reflecting the economy as a whole and Greece will show a surplus this year.

Their top priority will be to tackle Youth Unemployment. In the wider employment field their "Artemis" program will tackle undeclared work which denies the Greek exchequer of revenue.

They will press on with equal opportunities and try to end discrimination. In particular they will seek to achieve a gender balance on company boards.

A bit like most of the initial presentations by Ministers of Member States.

Derek Clark MEP Brussels 23rd Jan 2014

Strasbourg Commentary Plenary Session Jan 13th – 16th 2013

Strasbourg Commentary Plenary Session Jan 13^th – 16^th 2013

Tuesday Carbon Capture and Storage. This illustrates my original suspicion about global warming and all that. They mean Carbon Dioxide, so why not say so. If I write letters to the paper and mis-use the apostrophe, for example, the roof falls in.

Why? Language is only for communication. If you are in a strange town and want a cup of tea in the afternoon and see a notice, “Teas’s” do you scream and run away. No, if you enter therein in you will be served a pot of tea and a sticky bun, if you are lucky. You will not be offered a pair of lady’s corsets. The grotesque notice has fulfilled its one and only function, correct information. But to use carbon when you mean carbon dioxide is wrong, it means lumps of black charcoal flying about! Why can’t these amateur scientists get it right?

Plenty of worker’s Rights this time, and dealing with plastic waste. Got into trouble in the UKIP MEP’s meeting on this one. Got told that lots of plastic bags, and so on, are biodegradable these days, that’s the way to go. All OK until I pointed out that if you degrade a kilogram of plastic you will still have a kilogram of something else, since you can not destroy matter. Basic Rule. Not appreciated, got called a scientist!! Code for ,“don’t know what I’m talking about”, when in fact I do!!

We press on.

Wednesday You will recall the Ashley Fox attempt to curtail Strasbourg meetings, expensive and all that. He is right, But…

Latest plan is to reduce each week of four days to three and this is to be put to the Conference of Presidents!. Rubbish. I’m all in favour of deleting Strasbourg. Its expensive to take all the paper there and bring it back again, plus our assistants and so on. But reducing to 3 days in a week not 4 will still mean the same cost of an airline ticket and the same cost of transferring the paper work each week. In fact it will cost more per day if only 3, not 4, days. Will it save a day’s expenses for all of us. Well, because it is so difficult to get there business does not start until 5.00pm on the Monday, and Thursday pm is a waste of time (that’s why I have time now to do this). So we actually do two full days and two halves. This plan would mean one full day and two halves, unless we started at 9.00 am on the Monday, which means an overnight flight and hotel stay Sunday night. No money saved there. Ah well!

Other tit-bits today included Honey. Got a note on my door, “Pollen is not an ingredient of honey” Gee, did not know that!. They are getting all worked up about the possibility of pollen from GM crops getting into the honey. Got into more trouble in the vote meeting! What with that and “Wildlife Crime” today…

Thursday We appointed a new member of the European Central Bank today, a Mrs Sabine Lautenslschlager. She had never worked as a banker, only in banking regulatory systems So that’s alright then.

Votes also on “EU citizenship for sale”. Voting figures indicate that this is perfectly OK but they do like the idea of Iceland being encouraged to join the EU. Suffice it to say that this is an Icelandic Government promotion, The Icelanders do not go along with it; they have too much fish to lose! Go to Iceland. Just three natural resources; fish, the lakes of melted ice, which provide hydro-electric power, and the hot springs which provide all the central heating and hot water. That’s it, yet the shops are full of all the goods you would expect. They all work very hard!

The week ended with my speech on Homeless this morning at about 9.30 am. View via this link http://www.ukipmeps.org/articles_782_Derek-Clark-We-need-settled-communities.html

Notice that Lazslo Andor, Employment Commissioner, actually responded to my comment about him in his summing up. That’s something I suppose. I spoke to him as he left when he repeated that he had been mis-quoted by the ‘Mail’. I can hardly believe that!. However, I took him at his word and suggested that he, “Joins the club”.

The speaker after me was Andrew Brons who also mis-quoted me, as well as mis-quoting Nigel. I wanted to challenge him by using the blue card but they have just ruled it out of order for any one on the list of speakers to do that. Never mind, not really bothered about the BNP.

The “Homeless Strategy” passed but with so many defeated amendments (unusual) that I do not know what it boils down to. To be honest, did not know that anyway.

On my way home.

Derek Clark MEP Strasbourg 16^th Jan 2014

Strasbourg Commentary (Part 2) Plenary session 13^th – 16^th Jan 2014

The outstanding event of the week was the appearance of the Greek Premier, Mr Samaras

His 40 minute presentation was to re-assure everyone that all in the Greek garden was lovely. Greece was now breaking even on the budget, that the current balance was OK. Yes, there was the outstanding Debt, he did not say how much!!, but they could now start paying back. They were on an even keel and there was social stability. He was grateful for the Solidarity shown by all the EU member states.

Then the round of lead speakers began.

Daul (EPP President) said Greek farmers would do better if they were not saddled with 10% on borrowing. They ought to reduce that, and that was the kind of Solidarity we need, MR FARAGE!

Swaobada Socialist) the demands of the Troika were not acceptable. It was destroying the social network in Greece., must be phased out. On a UK tack he complained that Cameron suppresses publication of benefit figures until after the Euro Elections.

Verhofstadt (ALDE) FARAGE wants to block worker movement when it is only 2.8% of working population. This is far too low, we want more movement, not less.

Harms (Greens) A mistake to say that reforms are working. The people do not buy into the systems. Public services are poor, Greece is in Depression, not recession. Greek jobs are being done in Brussels. Greece has foreign companies exploiting their resources.

Callanan (ECR) Samaras painted a nice picture but it is misleading.

Zimmer (NGL) It’s a social disaster in Greece with very high unemployment. There is a lot of illegitimate debt, ie conversion of private debt into Government debt.

So, not exactly a rosy Greek picture after all. You will have seen Nigel’s piece already, if not on this link. http://www.ukipmeps.org/articles_779_Farage-A-Battle-of-National-Democracy-vs-EU-State-Bureaucracy.html and I have never seen Nigel attacked by speakers before he got up to speak, still less two of them.

Personally I have been wrong on one count. I thought that they would all rally round Greece with the Euro elections in May so as to keep up the pretence of all being well, but not this week. Perhaps they will find some magic in April.

Derek Clark MEP 16^th Jan 2014

Strasbourg Commentary Plenary session 9th - 12th Dec 2013

Strasbourg Commentary Plenary session 9^th - 12^th Dec 2013

Tuesday I mentioned Western Sahara in my last Brussels Commentary and today there was the vote on the EU-Morocco fishing agreement. I regret to tell you that it was adopted by 310 – 204 votes. Disgraceful, these MEPs are either ignorant or do not care. There is one hope from an unlikely quarter. The Commissioner ‘phoned up our assistant dealing with this and asked for our support for Western Sahara. We’ll have to see what might come of that.

We were also closely involved in further fishing votes, deep sea fishing in the North Atlantic. We have been heavily lobbied over this from those wishing to protect the sea bed from aggressive trawling which scars the bottom and destroys rare species. If you read one account of our vote you might get the impression that we did not care for we voted against a certain amendment which gave protection. But that was only two years protection and what happens then is another matter, we wanted long term protection.

The Estrela Report may come up in the UK press. Ms Estrela wanted comprehensive protection against all kinds of things, including Female Genital Mutilation. Quite horrible, as we all agree. Problem, it was all tied up with so many side issues and conditions that we abstained all through. After all, member states, ie, individual countries, should be putting their own house in order. At the end, since getting insufficient support, Ms Estrela withdrew her name from the report. This was an “Own Initiative” report, ie an MEP’s own idea and it cannot therefore be legislative, so no rules or regs can emerge. What does happen to Own Initiative reports is that the Commission keep an eye and if one looks promising they will sometimes take it up and make a legislative report of it.

Later on I spoke to the Globalisation Adjustment Fund. That’s awarding lots of your money to help workers made redundant when firms close, often when a firm moves abroad because it can’t compete any more due to the crazy EU Rules and Regs it has to obey. See on this link http://www.ukipmeps.org/articles_770_Company-after-company-closing-under-the-weight-of-EU-Regulation.html

We had the EFD group Christmas Dinner that evening in a Strasbourg restaurant and the original schedule showed me speaking at about 6.30 pm,- OK. But the time slipped, as always, and I got to my feet at about 8.45pm!! Raced to dinner, got there just after 9.00. They kept it hot for me, and for Jane who was with me on this visit, but who was lucky not to have been thrown out of the Parliament visitor gallery. She clapped my effort, - strictly forbidden!

Speaking late in the evening is not popular because the session goes on to midnight and slippage always occurs. I once finished a one minute speech at two minutes to midnight!

Wednesday Votes for no less than 5 new members of the Court of Auditors. At least the names were published this time. Any use asking if the new lot will see that the books are properly audited next year?

Pre accession assistance was approved. That means candidate countries being awarded vast sums of (your) money to sweeten them up and help to firm up their public opinion. The Globalisation Adjustment Fund to which I spoke on Tuesday evening came to vote. Guess how that turned out. That’s right, adopted, by 543 to 126,- I had really made an impact!

Most votes today were of just one page of amendments, or less, but one on, “Human Rights in the World”, ran to 3 pages. Priorities!

Much more sinister was the Cutas report on, “Mandatory automatic exchange of information in the field of taxation”. Adopted by 360 – 59, and notice the word, “mandatory”.

Thursday Votes included ,”Progress on Roma integration strategies”. This passed but the last amendment, “Whereas the Roma share responsibility for their current dire situation with the wider society, and whereas Roma communities need to tackle the wrongs and problems within their communities”, was defeated by 293- 309.

Then we voted on the Ukraine, which had been an item at the Vilnius summit recently. Our, ie EFD amendment, not welcoming Ukrainian membership was defeated by 60 to 464 votes. Further votes in favour of Ukrainian membership were adopted, including visa free travel. The whole report favoured Ukrainian membership and, at the conclusion, the leading Lib-Dem member present welcomed the result and displayed a Ukrainian flag, the signal for the whole of the Lib-Dems present, plus some others, to stand up and flourish Ukrainian flags. Such displays are forbidden in the House. Guess who gets away with it and who got the knuckles well and truly rapped a couple of years ago for the same thing!

A “Progress report on Albania” report was not supported, this time.

A Happy Christmas to all my readers.

Derek Clark MEP Strasbourg 12^th D ec 2013