Graham's blog Friday 9 July 2010

Published on Fri 9th Jul 2010

It is now a year since the start of the European Parliament's current (2009-14) mandate; this week it was felt in two ways. First, MEPs - over half of whom are new - looked and sounded exhausted during the final plenary session before the summer break. Second, this week's votes were of considerable importance.

On Tuesday we voted to update legislation on novel foods, reiterating our opposition to meat or dairy products from cloned animals and calling for a moratorium on foods produced using nano-technology. We also voted to extend rights enjoyed by airline passengers to passengers in ship, rail and long-distance coach travel. On Wednesday we took an interim vote on setting up new financial supervisory authorities which should allow us to reach agreement next week with the 27 national governments in the Council of Ministers and adopt the new legislation formally in September. As one MEP put it, we can't stop banks going under, but we can take preventive measures and limit collateral damage. We also gave the go-ahead for the opening of negotiations on Iceland joining the EU. And yesterday we voted to approve the new regime governing the transfer of banking data to the US government to assist in fighting terrorism. We also endorsed the setting up of the EU's common diplomatic service, the European External Action Service, which will save taxpayers millions of pounds by pooling assets as well as political intelligence.

The European Parliament's new powers (under the Lisbon Treaty) have made it a more powerful institution. This week's votes (and the lobbying which accompanied them) underlined that. Next week there are a few tidying-up committee sessions in Brussels before the House rises on Friday (until 30 August).

On Monday my staff welcomed a group of visitors from Exeter's Clyst Vale school to Brussels while I welcomed a group from the Blue School in Wells to Strasbourg. Today I will welcome Education and Culture Commissioner Androula Vassiliou (Cyprus, LibDem) to Wells for the annual concert at Wells Cathedral school. Tomorrow I speak to Europarc rangers at the Mendip AONB in the morning and meet the Somerset Tourism Association in the afternoon.

I met Climate Change Commissioner Connie Hedegaard on Wednesday to plead for investment in the high voltage direct current electricity distribution network which I have written about in former newsletters. A European Commission report published on Monday shows that 60% of all new electricity generating capacity built in the EU in the last year is from renewables and renewable sources supplied 19.9% of all electricity consumed. Interconnectors to distribute this power would allow a vast expansion of investment. The French have established a consortium to lay cables under the Mediterranean Sea to allow for the import of solar-generated electricity from North Africa. We could see up to 1400 terawatt hours of electricity generated from renewables by 2020, which is nearly 40% of total demand.

So much happens in our Strasbourg weeks that there is a lot more I could report, but I'll leave it there for now. If you've any questions about the EU, either about what I've written or about anything else, please don't hesitate to ask.