9.00 Off to the Patent Conference. I am a panellist for the final session, but before that we have speeches from Industry and the President of the European Patent Office. The panel session goes well. I get the feeling that I am the most in tune with those attending.
Several of the patent attorneys, and Nicholas Pumfrey, come to me afterwards and say that I had done well and made things very clear. I am gratified for I can think of nothing worse than my former colleagues thinking I was doing a bad job!
Friday 30 March 2007
Thursday 29 March 2007
Record breaking mini session?
9.00 Arrive in the office and start to pack papers and tidy up. I may have to rush off for my plane to Berlin immediately after votes.
10.00 Interview with Ian Murray, editor of the Southern Daily Echo.
11.00 Go over to Plenary. Votes are delayed until 11.30 so I go for a coffee with Sarah.
11.30 Votes. Apparently this is the longest ever (or largest number of votes) in a mini session. Not sure whether he (chair) really means ever or just this session. Anyway well over 800 votes. Damages actions has been delayed until next time as well.
13.15 Get car to airport. At the airport meet up with Lehne and his assistant Sebastian and have useful chat on damages actions and a few other things. Our flight lands and we are whisked by car to the conference just in time for the final session at 5pm. Lehne is chairing one session. I go to another about EPLA at which UK patents judge Sir Nicholas Pumfrey is a contributor. There is a French Government representative and a French Industry representative and they have very different views. Industry effectively says ‘which bit of we want EPLA do you not understand?’ The evening is a reception at which there is useful networking.
10.00 Interview with Ian Murray, editor of the Southern Daily Echo.
11.00 Go over to Plenary. Votes are delayed until 11.30 so I go for a coffee with Sarah.
11.30 Votes. Apparently this is the longest ever (or largest number of votes) in a mini session. Not sure whether he (chair) really means ever or just this session. Anyway well over 800 votes. Damages actions has been delayed until next time as well.
13.15 Get car to airport. At the airport meet up with Lehne and his assistant Sebastian and have useful chat on damages actions and a few other things. Our flight lands and we are whisked by car to the conference just in time for the final session at 5pm. Lehne is chairing one session. I go to another about EPLA at which UK patents judge Sir Nicholas Pumfrey is a contributor. There is a French Government representative and a French Industry representative and they have very different views. Industry effectively says ‘which bit of we want EPLA do you not understand?’ The evening is a reception at which there is useful networking.
Wednesday 28 March 2007
Football Debate and Amendments
8.30 I am in the chair for the Lib Dem Parliamentary party meeting. Nothing spectacular, just routine review of the upcoming business and staff positions.
9.00 Telephone discussion with the French Deputy Ambassador to the EU. He wanted to talk to me about patents before the Berlin Conference and we could not schedule a meeting so agreed to have this call to establish contact. Everyone is looking for solutions, and ways to work together, which is good but I am concerned that too much complexity will lead to failure.
9.30 I get to the working group meeting for the discussion of the football reports. Most of the amendments that we submitted have made their way into the compromises so we agree that some of ours can be withdrawn. Just about everything that I submitted is in the compromises, the bits that did not make it are not mine and I reckon of less importance. ALDE, and to a large extent myself, have 24 amendments and co-signed 25 compromises including our amendments. Out of 54 in total I reckon we have done our stuff.
11.00 Meeting with Andrew Cave of the Federation of Small Businesses. They are concerned about Rome 1, which also came up yesterday with UKREP. Seems I will have to look at this.
12.00 I have a photoshoot outside the Parliament.
12.30 Back to the office. I have speaking time in the football debate so start to work out what to say in that and the corresponding press release. Also start to gather papers and thoughts for my session at the Berlin Conference.
15.30 TV Interview with Jim Gibbons on football. Then back to the office and paperwork, keeping an eye on the debates. My speaking time, originally scheduled for around 6pm starts to slip later and later.
18.30 The group has a celebration reception for the EU 50 years. I do not stay long. My speaking time now scheduled for about 8.30pm.
21.30 The football debate finally gets started, I do my speech at about 22.20. Leave Parliament afterwards.
9.00 Telephone discussion with the French Deputy Ambassador to the EU. He wanted to talk to me about patents before the Berlin Conference and we could not schedule a meeting so agreed to have this call to establish contact. Everyone is looking for solutions, and ways to work together, which is good but I am concerned that too much complexity will lead to failure.
9.30 I get to the working group meeting for the discussion of the football reports. Most of the amendments that we submitted have made their way into the compromises so we agree that some of ours can be withdrawn. Just about everything that I submitted is in the compromises, the bits that did not make it are not mine and I reckon of less importance. ALDE, and to a large extent myself, have 24 amendments and co-signed 25 compromises including our amendments. Out of 54 in total I reckon we have done our stuff.
11.00 Meeting with Andrew Cave of the Federation of Small Businesses. They are concerned about Rome 1, which also came up yesterday with UKREP. Seems I will have to look at this.
12.00 I have a photoshoot outside the Parliament.
12.30 Back to the office. I have speaking time in the football debate so start to work out what to say in that and the corresponding press release. Also start to gather papers and thoughts for my session at the Berlin Conference.
15.30 TV Interview with Jim Gibbons on football. Then back to the office and paperwork, keeping an eye on the debates. My speaking time, originally scheduled for around 6pm starts to slip later and later.
18.30 The group has a celebration reception for the EU 50 years. I do not stay long. My speaking time now scheduled for about 8.30pm.
21.30 The football debate finally gets started, I do my speech at about 22.20. Leave Parliament afterwards.
Tuesday 27 March 2007
Damages Actions, Mazars missed
8.00 Arrive in the office and continue with preparation work.
9.00 ECON. I am first on. Amongst other things I share my doubts about the creation of an oversight board unless in has some teeth and I say that it looks like the Council are trying to ensure it has no teeth. I see the ECON secretariat grinning somewhat and I wonder whether I have been a bit blunt. Ike van den Burg talks about the advisory committee, for which she is rapporteur. She says she agrees with my reservations about the board but does not sound quite so blunt as me. I had hoped not to stick with the original tight timetable and we have amendments set for 16 May. It is agreed we will try to talk to the Commission next Strasbourg and to have some feedback on what is done in the US. I suppose if we do not get a clearer picture I will have to compile amendments that give the Board more teeth and then see who squeals.
11.00 Meeting with the UK Permanent Representative people who do the JURI Committee things. This is really just an introduction now I am formally on the committee so we chat about various ongoing and upcoming issues in general terms.
12.00 I go to speak to a visitors Group from the University of Portsmouth. I do the first half hour then Caroline Lucas takes over for the second half.
12.30 Back to the office. We should be going to the ALDE Prep meeting but there are still a few bits to sort out for this afternoon so I skip it.
13.20 I arrive, late, for the Kangaroo Group Lunch meeting on the modernised customs code. I decided to go to this as it might be useful background to fiscal fraud. It is a bit marginal as to whether that is the case. The most interesting fact seems to be that in some countries the customs clearance paperwork still seems to be a bit of a closed shop/family businesses, unless I misunderstood (meeting partly in French). I will check sometime with Janelly Fortou who is the rapporteur.
15.00 ECON. We have votes first. The damages actions is completely controlled by our votes. The EPP are on the losing side (unusual for them). My innovation votes also go well, although I lose two amendments possibly because they have not been understood. However, they are in for JURI as well and I will talk to EPP members about them just to check. Sanches Presaro comes to speak to me after the damages actions votes. One vote to delete a paragraph is lost but then the paragraph is not voted for so it falls after all! They want to check that I agree that is what happened.
I said yes and I thought it was because hands did not go up fast enough (especially in the PES). Sanches Presaro hopes to make some amendments to try and get the EPP in more agreement at plenary. I explain that it may not be easy because where they had delete options I had already put in the ‘softer’ amendments. However, there may be a few things.
Charlie McCreevy arrives to answer questions in ECON. I did not ask a question as I had put them in JURI last week, however some of what I had asked there is repeated repeated by others. There is also a bit of report back on payments which was agreed in ECOFIN this morning. McCreevy very much on form. When quizzed by Radwan and Hoppenstedt on hedge funds, they said he had not said anything about them, he replied and said he had said plenty it was just that they had not liked what he had said! He then went on to repeat what he has previously said and which, allegedly, they must not have liked.
I could not help but smirk for it was so true, we have been told before. At the very end of the session Pervenche Beres quizzed again quite aggressively (Carol said afterwards she felt quite sorry for McCreevy) but McCreevy was a real pro taking out all the sting with humorous flattery - saying that Pervenche had just shown what a good candidate she would have made in certain French elections (Presidential elections) - before addressing the points she raised.
18.00 Back to the office. ECON has gone on so long I will miss the Mazars seminar on corporate accountability that I was hoping to get to. Not really vital but I was going to go because I was instrumental in appointing Mazars as the Lib Dems auditors some years ago when I was on the Federal Finance Committee. I recall we chose them because they had really got to grips with how difficult it would be to make all units of political parties comply with the (then) new financial reporting. I continue with paperwork and leave at 7.30 pm.
9.00 ECON. I am first on. Amongst other things I share my doubts about the creation of an oversight board unless in has some teeth and I say that it looks like the Council are trying to ensure it has no teeth. I see the ECON secretariat grinning somewhat and I wonder whether I have been a bit blunt. Ike van den Burg talks about the advisory committee, for which she is rapporteur. She says she agrees with my reservations about the board but does not sound quite so blunt as me. I had hoped not to stick with the original tight timetable and we have amendments set for 16 May. It is agreed we will try to talk to the Commission next Strasbourg and to have some feedback on what is done in the US. I suppose if we do not get a clearer picture I will have to compile amendments that give the Board more teeth and then see who squeals.
11.00 Meeting with the UK Permanent Representative people who do the JURI Committee things. This is really just an introduction now I am formally on the committee so we chat about various ongoing and upcoming issues in general terms.
12.00 I go to speak to a visitors Group from the University of Portsmouth. I do the first half hour then Caroline Lucas takes over for the second half.
12.30 Back to the office. We should be going to the ALDE Prep meeting but there are still a few bits to sort out for this afternoon so I skip it.
13.20 I arrive, late, for the Kangaroo Group Lunch meeting on the modernised customs code. I decided to go to this as it might be useful background to fiscal fraud. It is a bit marginal as to whether that is the case. The most interesting fact seems to be that in some countries the customs clearance paperwork still seems to be a bit of a closed shop/family businesses, unless I misunderstood (meeting partly in French). I will check sometime with Janelly Fortou who is the rapporteur.
15.00 ECON. We have votes first. The damages actions is completely controlled by our votes. The EPP are on the losing side (unusual for them). My innovation votes also go well, although I lose two amendments possibly because they have not been understood. However, they are in for JURI as well and I will talk to EPP members about them just to check. Sanches Presaro comes to speak to me after the damages actions votes. One vote to delete a paragraph is lost but then the paragraph is not voted for so it falls after all! They want to check that I agree that is what happened.
I said yes and I thought it was because hands did not go up fast enough (especially in the PES). Sanches Presaro hopes to make some amendments to try and get the EPP in more agreement at plenary. I explain that it may not be easy because where they had delete options I had already put in the ‘softer’ amendments. However, there may be a few things.
Charlie McCreevy arrives to answer questions in ECON. I did not ask a question as I had put them in JURI last week, however some of what I had asked there is repeated repeated by others. There is also a bit of report back on payments which was agreed in ECOFIN this morning. McCreevy very much on form. When quizzed by Radwan and Hoppenstedt on hedge funds, they said he had not said anything about them, he replied and said he had said plenty it was just that they had not liked what he had said! He then went on to repeat what he has previously said and which, allegedly, they must not have liked.
I could not help but smirk for it was so true, we have been told before. At the very end of the session Pervenche Beres quizzed again quite aggressively (Carol said afterwards she felt quite sorry for McCreevy) but McCreevy was a real pro taking out all the sting with humorous flattery - saying that Pervenche had just shown what a good candidate she would have made in certain French elections (Presidential elections) - before addressing the points she raised.
18.00 Back to the office. ECON has gone on so long I will miss the Mazars seminar on corporate accountability that I was hoping to get to. Not really vital but I was going to go because I was instrumental in appointing Mazars as the Lib Dems auditors some years ago when I was on the Federal Finance Committee. I recall we chose them because they had really got to grips with how difficult it would be to make all units of political parties comply with the (then) new financial reporting. I continue with paperwork and leave at 7.30 pm.
Monday 26 March 2007
Summertime is here!
8.30 Now that the clocks have gone forward the plane times have changed so I am getting an earlier flight that arrives in Brussels at 1.00 pm, at least in theory. Actually it departs about an hour late, so most of the extra time is spent at Heathrow.
14.00 Arrive in the office. Straight to work on checking voting lists for our ECON votes tomorrow. We have damages actions, on which I have taken over the lead for the Group and my innovation report. Additionally I have to do my presentation on the proposed statistical board.
16.30 Meeting with specialist press from eFinancial News and Money Marketing.
17.30 Back to the paperwork, then leave to go to the flat at about 8.00pm. I note that the Place de Luxembourg is thronging with everywhere outside the bars full. Interesting how it suddenly looks like summer just because the clocks have changed and everyone is out socialising.
14.00 Arrive in the office. Straight to work on checking voting lists for our ECON votes tomorrow. We have damages actions, on which I have taken over the lead for the Group and my innovation report. Additionally I have to do my presentation on the proposed statistical board.
16.30 Meeting with specialist press from eFinancial News and Money Marketing.
17.30 Back to the paperwork, then leave to go to the flat at about 8.00pm. I note that the Place de Luxembourg is thronging with everywhere outside the bars full. Interesting how it suddenly looks like summer just because the clocks have changed and everyone is out socialising.
Thursday 22 March 2007
Close votes on roaming
8.30 get my Eurostar ticket. Suddenly little Easter Eggs are appearing everywhere including at the ticket desk. I nobly resist.
9.00 Arrive in office and review emails and start to collect thoughts on payments. Then I get an SOS to go and vote on the Internal Market committee which is voting today on roaming. Get there for 10.00 and we take the best part of an hour to finish the votes. Many are won by ‘our side’ 22 to 21 including the final vote, so just as well I got there otherwise nothing would have been passed!
11.00 I have a meeting with the Commission on the statistics supervisory board. I am not convinced of the need! When they go we have the German Presidency on the phone wanting to come and see me on the same subject, but I have a lunch to go to so decline.
12.15 Lunch to discuss upcoming IP issues.
14.30 Back in the office and we have the final texts coming through for out meeting at 16.00. Read these then head off for the Council offices.
16.00 Trilogue meeting. More big guns there from the Presidency (the ambassador) and Commission. It all goes according to known positions with the Parliament trying to squeeze some concessions but beyond some extra clarity I do not think there will be a great deal. That suits me and the UK.
18.00 leave for Eurostar.
9.00 Arrive in office and review emails and start to collect thoughts on payments. Then I get an SOS to go and vote on the Internal Market committee which is voting today on roaming. Get there for 10.00 and we take the best part of an hour to finish the votes. Many are won by ‘our side’ 22 to 21 including the final vote, so just as well I got there otherwise nothing would have been passed!
11.00 I have a meeting with the Commission on the statistics supervisory board. I am not convinced of the need! When they go we have the German Presidency on the phone wanting to come and see me on the same subject, but I have a lunch to go to so decline.
12.15 Lunch to discuss upcoming IP issues.
14.30 Back in the office and we have the final texts coming through for out meeting at 16.00. Read these then head off for the Council offices.
16.00 Trilogue meeting. More big guns there from the Presidency (the ambassador) and Commission. It all goes according to known positions with the Parliament trying to squeeze some concessions but beyond some extra clarity I do not think there will be a great deal. That suits me and the UK.
18.00 leave for Eurostar.
Wednesday 21 March 2007
Kashmir and ECON
8.45 Arrive in office and collect copy of modified voting list on Kashmir for the foreign affairs committee and go to the committee for 9.00.. I am able to substitute for an absent Group member and vote. In the end I think the outcome is acceptable but Saj and Liz less satisfied. I feel that we were the only ones who voted on every amendment on the basis of what it said rather than superimposing a party political allegiance. If the Tories and Labour had done what we did then there would have been an even better result. They would not support out amendments at all. However, we had fortunately worked a lot of them in to the compromises. It took an hour to complete the votes.
10.30 On way back to the office bump in to Carol and Sally Padget from Prudential, we return to the office to discuss the briefing note for the lunch in May on Solvency ll.
11.00 Into the ECON committee for votes. We take an hour, mostly on roaming which all goes our way and my amendments passed. We also vote PPP but we are able to do that en bloc with one vote, so I get a clap. We discuss my innovation opinion immediately after votes and I then have a discussion on compromise wording with the socialist shadow rapporteur.
13.00 Back to the office. Email exchanges and internal discussions take up time until 16.00 when we have a meeting of rapporteurs about the outcome of the Ambassador’s meeting on payments. The others still complain about the 12 months for credit and want it lowered to 3 months. I take the opposite view and say if that is lowered I would want a reduction in capital as a balancing measure. Anyway, reduction in capital will be asked for I am sure at the trilogue tomorrow.
17.00 Back to the office to discover that the draft for the oral question on levies does not seem to be going according to my liking. I dispatch emails, suggestions and my original. We have until next Tuesday to get this agreed. Leave at 8.30 pm.
10.30 On way back to the office bump in to Carol and Sally Padget from Prudential, we return to the office to discuss the briefing note for the lunch in May on Solvency ll.
11.00 Into the ECON committee for votes. We take an hour, mostly on roaming which all goes our way and my amendments passed. We also vote PPP but we are able to do that en bloc with one vote, so I get a clap. We discuss my innovation opinion immediately after votes and I then have a discussion on compromise wording with the socialist shadow rapporteur.
13.00 Back to the office. Email exchanges and internal discussions take up time until 16.00 when we have a meeting of rapporteurs about the outcome of the Ambassador’s meeting on payments. The others still complain about the 12 months for credit and want it lowered to 3 months. I take the opposite view and say if that is lowered I would want a reduction in capital as a balancing measure. Anyway, reduction in capital will be asked for I am sure at the trilogue tomorrow.
17.00 Back to the office to discover that the draft for the oral question on levies does not seem to be going according to my liking. I dispatch emails, suggestions and my original. We have until next Tuesday to get this agreed. Leave at 8.30 pm.
Tuesday 20 March 2007
JURI and ECON questions
8.30 Carol and I spend an hour finishing the amendments and submitting them, along with the usual emails.
9.30 Go to the Equitable Life Committee. We discuss the first draft of the report which is not yet public.
10.30 Into JURI for an exchange of views with Charlie McCreevy. I have three questions. One on shareholder voting rights and what he understands by proportionality. His reply indicated he is not fixed on one share one vote as some say. The second question is on Insurance guarantees and I seem to get a "not much doing yet" response. In my third question I say there has been an article in European Voice that the patent strategy communication has been delayed because of the French Presidential elections and we have also previously been similarly told that the copyright levies communication has been delayed due to a request to Barroso from the French, so is there anything else in his remit that is being delayed for the French election that we have not yet heard about.
Everyone laughs and Charlie quips that he is thinking of a full harmonisation directive for election times. He says he was told that the levies matter was politically sensitive. Anyway, we will hopefully be revisiting that with an oral question. We do not get to discuss the legal services opinion on the European Patent Litigation Agreement, and there is a debate about whether it is confidential. Then we have a closed session that discusses whether or not to lift immunity from prosecution from a fellow MEP. There seem to be these quite often and they can arise from allegations of libel or other damage and there may be Parliamentary privilege or the equivalent.
13.30 Meeting with other Group members about amendments to the football report. All my amendments are agreed and I am able to tweak those of Toine and Ignasi so we all more or less reach agreement.
14.30 Back to the office and collect papers for ECON. We have Neelie Kroes coming and I also have to lead the discussion on the amendments of my Innovation opinion.
15.00 Into ECON. I have two questions for Neelie, but she gives such long answers to others and I am in the last round so I only ask one about whether government bonds can continue to be traded in the same way as now given the restriction to one platform (which could be a competition issue) and the interest of Citadel in trading them. She says she will send a written reply. We then go on in committee to discuss roaming and other things and I am left with 3 minutes for my opinion so we defer it until tomorrow.
19.00 A briefing dinner with BT about spectrum and communication issues.
9.30 Go to the Equitable Life Committee. We discuss the first draft of the report which is not yet public.
10.30 Into JURI for an exchange of views with Charlie McCreevy. I have three questions. One on shareholder voting rights and what he understands by proportionality. His reply indicated he is not fixed on one share one vote as some say. The second question is on Insurance guarantees and I seem to get a "not much doing yet" response. In my third question I say there has been an article in European Voice that the patent strategy communication has been delayed because of the French Presidential elections and we have also previously been similarly told that the copyright levies communication has been delayed due to a request to Barroso from the French, so is there anything else in his remit that is being delayed for the French election that we have not yet heard about.
Everyone laughs and Charlie quips that he is thinking of a full harmonisation directive for election times. He says he was told that the levies matter was politically sensitive. Anyway, we will hopefully be revisiting that with an oral question. We do not get to discuss the legal services opinion on the European Patent Litigation Agreement, and there is a debate about whether it is confidential. Then we have a closed session that discusses whether or not to lift immunity from prosecution from a fellow MEP. There seem to be these quite often and they can arise from allegations of libel or other damage and there may be Parliamentary privilege or the equivalent.
13.30 Meeting with other Group members about amendments to the football report. All my amendments are agreed and I am able to tweak those of Toine and Ignasi so we all more or less reach agreement.
14.30 Back to the office and collect papers for ECON. We have Neelie Kroes coming and I also have to lead the discussion on the amendments of my Innovation opinion.
15.00 Into ECON. I have two questions for Neelie, but she gives such long answers to others and I am in the last round so I only ask one about whether government bonds can continue to be traded in the same way as now given the restriction to one platform (which could be a competition issue) and the interest of Citadel in trading them. She says she will send a written reply. We then go on in committee to discuss roaming and other things and I am left with 3 minutes for my opinion so we defer it until tomorrow.
19.00 A briefing dinner with BT about spectrum and communication issues.
Monday 19 March 2007
Travelling to Brussels
10.00 Depart for airport. Everything runs very smoothly and I get to the Parliament by 2.45. There is a deadline tomorrow for two sets of amendments, so I work on those then go to Juri where there is meant to be an exchange of views on the financial services white paper, for which I have just been drafting amendments. However, everything gets delayed and it gets postponed until tomorrow.
18.00 Reception at AmCham for the new Director Internal Market.
18.00 Reception at AmCham for the new Director Internal Market.
Thursday 15 March 2007
Kashmir and trilogue
9.00 Our Lib Dem meeting on Kashmir. Emma presents the compromise amendments. A lot of these we are happy with. I say that I would like the first half of my amendment 15 added to the front on compromise 10. I hand out a proposal that I have prepared with Rachel (Saj’s assistant). This acknowledges the right of self determination. The rest of that compromise then lays out why at the present time it is not possible. Emma seems reluctant but Elspeth agrees with me, then also Chris says having such a reference is his bottom line too. Graham says that there is a majority in committee without my amendment. Fiona then weighs in and says we do need a reference all the more so when so much of the report says why it is not possible now. We move on and come to the same point in compromise 12. Andrew thinks the reference to self determination fits better there. We seem to get agreement from Emma.
10.15 Back in the office. Start to read the latest papers on payments ready for the trilogue this afternoon. Andrew pops in to say he thinks we may have got a result with the Kashmir discussion this morning. He agrees that it was a good thing I had produced something in writing.
11.00 Telephone call with a journalist doing a piece for a Hampshire magazine. She had written to me as an individual and was pleased with my reply and so is writing an article about the best way to contact MPs and MEPs.
11.30 A former Irish MEP pops in. He is now working for some hedge fund organisation and has been referred to me. He wants me to co sponsor a discussion dinner. That is fine, We then discuss Irish politics. He used to be leader of our Northern Ireland sister party, the Alliance, before John Alderdice. Then he moved to the Republic and became an MEP. So I ask him all the questions I never dared to ask about the Irish political parties. Carol listens in. Not sure if she is interested or wondering why I never knew all that.
12.00 Votes. My fix on Euro-Med free trade is moved and accepted.
14.30 We have a ‘trilogue’ meeting with Commission and Council on payments. Really more of an update. The translators not there so we work in a French/English hybrid.
17.00 I go to vote on the human rights resolutions then continue with phone callms and paperwork until about 8.00pm. I am on the early flight back tomorrow morning as I did not know how long the trilogue would be. On Saturday I go to Bexhill and Battle for their annual lunch.
10.15 Back in the office. Start to read the latest papers on payments ready for the trilogue this afternoon. Andrew pops in to say he thinks we may have got a result with the Kashmir discussion this morning. He agrees that it was a good thing I had produced something in writing.
11.00 Telephone call with a journalist doing a piece for a Hampshire magazine. She had written to me as an individual and was pleased with my reply and so is writing an article about the best way to contact MPs and MEPs.
11.30 A former Irish MEP pops in. He is now working for some hedge fund organisation and has been referred to me. He wants me to co sponsor a discussion dinner. That is fine, We then discuss Irish politics. He used to be leader of our Northern Ireland sister party, the Alliance, before John Alderdice. Then he moved to the Republic and became an MEP. So I ask him all the questions I never dared to ask about the Irish political parties. Carol listens in. Not sure if she is interested or wondering why I never knew all that.
12.00 Votes. My fix on Euro-Med free trade is moved and accepted.
14.30 We have a ‘trilogue’ meeting with Commission and Council on payments. Really more of an update. The translators not there so we work in a French/English hybrid.
17.00 I go to vote on the human rights resolutions then continue with phone callms and paperwork until about 8.00pm. I am on the early flight back tomorrow morning as I did not know how long the trilogue would be. On Saturday I go to Bexhill and Battle for their annual lunch.
Wednesday 14 March 2007
Roaming, Football and my 10,000th vote!
9.00 A later start today. Again no controversy on votes. I draft a note for circulation to the shadow rapporteurs on the amendments to the Innovation report. This is not technically necessary but it may speed up organising some compromises and make the exchange of views next week more fruitful.
11.00 Meet with Reed Elsevier on scientific publishing. There is a report on creation of an EU digital repository. The idea is that scientific papers should be made available to it freely. This is a noble principle but there seem to be problems in how publishers recoup the cost of organising peer review. This is something I do need to investigate further.
11.45 Have meeting with Olle Schmidt who has asked to be updated on the current situation on payments.
12.30 Votes. A photographer comes to take pictures of me in plenary holding a sign saying 10,000 votes. This is while we are voting. All my colleagues want to know what it is about and I am nervous they will draw too much attention to it and the President might notice. I am not sure that holding up notices in plenary is allowed! The votes seem to go so fast that she has difficulty in catching us with our hands up so it all takes much longer that expected, but in the end job safely done.
13.30 Have lunch with Ansgar Tietmeyer from Deutsche Bank. Predictably, the subject of conversation in payments. Everyone is getting worried that we are not getting closer to a solution. He also draws my attention to some points for which I had fought that have now gone from the Presidency text. This is useful but I fear it is yet another example of how detail gets squashed out in the inter-institutional stage.
15.00 I eventually find the room where the Group foreign affairs team are meeting on Kashmir. It is a small room and already there are too many Lib Dems there, so I leave it to Saj and Liz. They will not be at the meerting tomorrow so I will take over then.
15.15 Back to office work then French lesson at 17.00. We play a tape of Chirac’s speech when he announces he is not running for President again. This is good listening practice. We then talk about some of the points and I have to explain that the French definition of Liberal in the political sense is not the same as in the UK.
18.30 Back to the office to assemble papers on football and roaming.
19.00 Down to Group. We complete the roaming discussion. Diana who has listened as a ‘neutral’ says she agrees with me that the consumer cap regulation on retail is needed. The shadow on football agrees with my amendments but we start to run out of time again and so we agree to delegate the submission of amendments on football to those who have worked on it. We have a private discussion and agree to meet to finalise next week.
Leave at 9.00pm
11.00 Meet with Reed Elsevier on scientific publishing. There is a report on creation of an EU digital repository. The idea is that scientific papers should be made available to it freely. This is a noble principle but there seem to be problems in how publishers recoup the cost of organising peer review. This is something I do need to investigate further.
11.45 Have meeting with Olle Schmidt who has asked to be updated on the current situation on payments.
12.30 Votes. A photographer comes to take pictures of me in plenary holding a sign saying 10,000 votes. This is while we are voting. All my colleagues want to know what it is about and I am nervous they will draw too much attention to it and the President might notice. I am not sure that holding up notices in plenary is allowed! The votes seem to go so fast that she has difficulty in catching us with our hands up so it all takes much longer that expected, but in the end job safely done.
13.30 Have lunch with Ansgar Tietmeyer from Deutsche Bank. Predictably, the subject of conversation in payments. Everyone is getting worried that we are not getting closer to a solution. He also draws my attention to some points for which I had fought that have now gone from the Presidency text. This is useful but I fear it is yet another example of how detail gets squashed out in the inter-institutional stage.
15.00 I eventually find the room where the Group foreign affairs team are meeting on Kashmir. It is a small room and already there are too many Lib Dems there, so I leave it to Saj and Liz. They will not be at the meerting tomorrow so I will take over then.
15.15 Back to office work then French lesson at 17.00. We play a tape of Chirac’s speech when he announces he is not running for President again. This is good listening practice. We then talk about some of the points and I have to explain that the French definition of Liberal in the political sense is not the same as in the UK.
18.30 Back to the office to assemble papers on football and roaming.
19.00 Down to Group. We complete the roaming discussion. Diana who has listened as a ‘neutral’ says she agrees with me that the consumer cap regulation on retail is needed. The shadow on football agrees with my amendments but we start to run out of time again and so we agree to delegate the submission of amendments on football to those who have worked on it. We have a private discussion and agree to meet to finalise next week.
Leave at 9.00pm
Tuesday 13 March 2007
Euro-Med Free Trade
8.00 The UK Lb Dem breakfast meeting. We update among ourselves on various issues including the latest on the Kashmir compromises, although we have a special meeting on that on Thursday morning. The rest of the time is taken up with discussing a new staff appointment.
9.00 Back to the office to continue work on Audio Visual Media and football. There do not seem to be many problems with votes today. We send the football amendments off to the Group.
11.30 Interview with three counties radio on the new EU network combating scams. This was as a result of a press release last week. Did two interviews on this, one last week as well.
12.00 Votes.
13.00 Back to the office and amendments.
15.00 Meeting with Lloyds on Solvency ll. They were also at the hearing last week so we discuss the possible different approaches of regulators. I wonder whether capital retention within member states has anything to do with it.
16.00 Meeting with Bertelsmann AG on the Zingoretti report.
17.00 Meeting with other rapporteurs/shadows and Commissioner Reding on the state of play. I bring up advertising time and short news issues. The advertising issue we will have to fight out but the point I make on short news look to be understood.
18:30 Back to the office and grab papers ready for the Group meeting Saj’s assistant alerts me to a problem with amendments on the Euro-Med free trade area paper. This is all to do with if services are opened up, should the EU be more generous and allow some asymmetry. I look at it and it seems possible to get the best of both worlds by splitting the EPP amendment in question and then changing one word in the residual part of the paragraph so that options for opening the EU market asymmetrically will be looked at. Saj's assistant goes off to let our shadow rapporteur know.
19.00 Group meeting. We deal among other things with the Euro-Med free trade. My amendment proposal is agreed. We then move on to a discussion of the mobile phone roaming regulation. We are all in agreement that a market has not been established and so there needs to be wholesale regulation but we are divided on whether retail regulation is necessary. Those who have worked on the dossier agree some king of retail cap price is needed and those who have not specialised in it and are following liberal instinct do not want it. This is quite useful for making us justify our case. We run out of time so the discussi
9.00 Back to the office to continue work on Audio Visual Media and football. There do not seem to be many problems with votes today. We send the football amendments off to the Group.
11.30 Interview with three counties radio on the new EU network combating scams. This was as a result of a press release last week. Did two interviews on this, one last week as well.
12.00 Votes.
13.00 Back to the office and amendments.
15.00 Meeting with Lloyds on Solvency ll. They were also at the hearing last week so we discuss the possible different approaches of regulators. I wonder whether capital retention within member states has anything to do with it.
16.00 Meeting with Bertelsmann AG on the Zingoretti report.
17.00 Meeting with other rapporteurs/shadows and Commissioner Reding on the state of play. I bring up advertising time and short news issues. The advertising issue we will have to fight out but the point I make on short news look to be understood.
18:30 Back to the office and grab papers ready for the Group meeting Saj’s assistant alerts me to a problem with amendments on the Euro-Med free trade area paper. This is all to do with if services are opened up, should the EU be more generous and allow some asymmetry. I look at it and it seems possible to get the best of both worlds by splitting the EPP amendment in question and then changing one word in the residual part of the paragraph so that options for opening the EU market asymmetrically will be looked at. Saj's assistant goes off to let our shadow rapporteur know.
19.00 Group meeting. We deal among other things with the Euro-Med free trade. My amendment proposal is agreed. We then move on to a discussion of the mobile phone roaming regulation. We are all in agreement that a market has not been established and so there needs to be wholesale regulation but we are divided on whether retail regulation is necessary. Those who have worked on the dossier agree some king of retail cap price is needed and those who have not specialised in it and are following liberal instinct do not want it. This is quite useful for making us justify our case. We run out of time so the discussi
Monday 12 March 2007
Strasbourg begins
5.30 In the taxi and off to Luton. Routine trip and I get to the Parliament at 12.15. Investigate email and other ongoing matters. There are some issues with a report on Corporate Social Responsibility, so I check through those and other information that Carol dug out on Friday. Carol arrives at about 2.00 pm. We continue to sort through the issues that are coming up in Group and check through the written declarations that I am thinking of signing.
16.00 Downstairs to the Group meeting. We discuss the annual policy statement. We then get on to the report on collection societies and copyright. Ignasi says that we have not approved all the amendments we tabled, we just agreed to table them. I was not present at the relevant meeting, but I agree with Toine’s amendments.
17.30 The Lib Dem European Parliamentary Party meeting. I am in the chair. Nothing very new or controversial. There is a new staff appointment to discuss but we will do that at our breakfast in the morning when we do not have assistants present.
18.30 All kinds of bits and pieces that need attention seem to have arisen. There is a meeting tomorrow on Audiovisual Media Services which is back from Council, and there are some problems with the latest proposals. The report on football is also to be discussed and I am putting amendments in on that. Leave at 8.00pm
16.00 Downstairs to the Group meeting. We discuss the annual policy statement. We then get on to the report on collection societies and copyright. Ignasi says that we have not approved all the amendments we tabled, we just agreed to table them. I was not present at the relevant meeting, but I agree with Toine’s amendments.
17.30 The Lib Dem European Parliamentary Party meeting. I am in the chair. Nothing very new or controversial. There is a new staff appointment to discuss but we will do that at our breakfast in the morning when we do not have assistants present.
18.30 All kinds of bits and pieces that need attention seem to have arisen. There is a meeting tomorrow on Audiovisual Media Services which is back from Council, and there are some problems with the latest proposals. The report on football is also to be discussed and I am putting amendments in on that. Leave at 8.00pm
Friday 9 March 2007
Back to Britain
8.00 Arrive in office and pack letters into my suitcase. I am speaking in Godalming College this afternoon and in London this evening, so transport works out more sensible connecting to Surrey by train at Waterloo. I get the 9.56 Eurostar and work on my speech on slavery and child soldiers for the evening. College visit is good with interesting questions from the students. The evening is to celebrate 200 years since the abolition of slavery and to point out that there are still challenges to face of modern day slavery and human trafficking. I am the first speaker as I am a member of all the organisations involved: the British Group of Liberal International, the National Liberal Club and Anti-Slavery International. Sue Darling of Anti-Slavery follows, than Liz Lynne. It all fits together quite well.
Thursday 8 March 2007
9.00 We have a meeting with the German Presidency and the Commission on Purchasing Price Parities to iron out the issue of who should pay for the collection of data. In the end it seems funding has already been happening, rather than it being needed for start up, so maintaining the status quo is reasonable. It has taken a long time to get the answer to this question which I posed at the first discussion in committee. We also take the opportunity to have a preliminary discussion on the set up of the statistics advisory board, which provides me with useful background information as to where the sensitivities lie.
11.00 We finalise letters about the campaign to save international train services at Ashford, then having a gap at last I take the opportunity to collect my curtains which I ordered weeks ago.
13.30 Back to the office and a long haul of signing the Ashford letters all afternoon. Carol and Dot get the first batch stuffed and ready to load into my case tomorrow morning. Dot has been collating information on Child Soldiers which I want to speak about tomorrow evening so we review that. Leave at 8.00pm
11.00 We finalise letters about the campaign to save international train services at Ashford, then having a gap at last I take the opportunity to collect my curtains which I ordered weeks ago.
13.30 Back to the office and a long haul of signing the Ashford letters all afternoon. Carol and Dot get the first batch stuffed and ready to load into my case tomorrow morning. Dot has been collating information on Child Soldiers which I want to speak about tomorrow evening so we review that. Leave at 8.00pm
Wednesday 7 March 2007
Payments, and a meeting with Will Hutton
8.30 Arrive in office. This morning I am speaking at a seminar organised by Graham Bishop. We have booked the room for him, but they gave us the room that is used as overflow for the Group Room as the Group was expected to be away this week. So now we have a crisis as a different room has to be found.
10.00 With about 2 minutes to spare a new room is found so the seminar starts. I update as far as possible on the payments Directive, which is not really much as no agreement on capital has been reached. We do some exploring of who wants what and what if it all goes to a second reading, but it is really a waiting game now. We then move on to a discussion about the ECB and the proposed Target 2 clearing system.
13.30 Lunch with Hugh Saville from the Association of British Insurers. We discuss some possible ways of presenting a check list of improvements that have been/need to be put in place since the time of the Equitable Life problems and how they also key in to Solvency ll. We also discuss a possible fringe meeting for our Party Conference in September on planning and insurance.
15.30 Meeting with American Express about details of the latest payments proposals. Their points are valid but we have much bigger issues to resolve first.
20.00 Dinner with Will Hutton and other MEPs organised by the Centre. He was in Brux for the launch of his new book on China. The discussions on China continue through dinner. His basic premise is that China is not as strong as is made out, indeed it is really rather weak, so we should not be frightened to be open. I point out that we should be open and up for competition irrespective of whether they are weak or strong. Some Danish support for my view: easy to spot the liberals. Will admits he did not quite get the last 100 pages of the book right, so if I ever get the time to read it I can skip those!
10.00 With about 2 minutes to spare a new room is found so the seminar starts. I update as far as possible on the payments Directive, which is not really much as no agreement on capital has been reached. We do some exploring of who wants what and what if it all goes to a second reading, but it is really a waiting game now. We then move on to a discussion about the ECB and the proposed Target 2 clearing system.
13.30 Lunch with Hugh Saville from the Association of British Insurers. We discuss some possible ways of presenting a check list of improvements that have been/need to be put in place since the time of the Equitable Life problems and how they also key in to Solvency ll. We also discuss a possible fringe meeting for our Party Conference in September on planning and insurance.
15.30 Meeting with American Express about details of the latest payments proposals. Their points are valid but we have much bigger issues to resolve first.
20.00 Dinner with Will Hutton and other MEPs organised by the Centre. He was in Brux for the launch of his new book on China. The discussions on China continue through dinner. His basic premise is that China is not as strong as is made out, indeed it is really rather weak, so we should not be frightened to be open. I point out that we should be open and up for competition irrespective of whether they are weak or strong. Some Danish support for my view: easy to spot the liberals. Will admits he did not quite get the last 100 pages of the book right, so if I ever get the time to read it I can skip those!
Tuesday 6 March 2007
IP and Women in Science
8.00 Arrive in the office and assemble my amendments on the innovation report ready to discuss them with Toine Manders at 9.00. He agrees to cosign all mine and we add in another that he suggests.
10.00 Gary and Mark arrive to inform me on the latest developments in Council on the Payments directive. Rest of the morning spent looking at the latest Presidency documents. It still all looks very stuck to me.
12.30 Lunch debate on Women and Science. Quite interesting. One of the sponsors, L’Oreal obviously do a lot of research and have a platform that is useful for engaging with girls who are not instinctively drawn to science. I agree to be involved in their program. This is all quite reminiscent of years ago when I acted as a role model for a women in science for Bedfordshire County Council and went giving talks at schools.
15.00 Trialogue on PSD. The Presidency present their latest proposals. We will probably meet again next week in Strasbourg. Pervenche Beres attends as well as the rapporteur and shadows.
17.30 Just get in to the tail end of the Group meeting.
18.30 I have a meeting with Nicola Zingaretti on his report about criminal sanctions in IP. I explain the reasoning behind my amendment which makes the criminality contingent upon aggravated circumstances such as counterfeiting, piracy, organised crime or risk to health and safety. I think this covers the main reasons such procedures are needed and cuts out the risk from the normal way in which an invalid or suspect patent, design or trade mark is usually infringed (and no action normally taken) rather than expensive revocation proceedings being launched. Anyway, he understood so at least it gives him food for thought and it does not diverge from being a blanket approach across all IP which has some advantages in terms of legal base.
19.00 Shuffle the usual paperwork and emails then return to flat at about 8.00pm.
10.00 Gary and Mark arrive to inform me on the latest developments in Council on the Payments directive. Rest of the morning spent looking at the latest Presidency documents. It still all looks very stuck to me.
12.30 Lunch debate on Women and Science. Quite interesting. One of the sponsors, L’Oreal obviously do a lot of research and have a platform that is useful for engaging with girls who are not instinctively drawn to science. I agree to be involved in their program. This is all quite reminiscent of years ago when I acted as a role model for a women in science for Bedfordshire County Council and went giving talks at schools.
15.00 Trialogue on PSD. The Presidency present their latest proposals. We will probably meet again next week in Strasbourg. Pervenche Beres attends as well as the rapporteur and shadows.
17.30 Just get in to the tail end of the Group meeting.
18.30 I have a meeting with Nicola Zingaretti on his report about criminal sanctions in IP. I explain the reasoning behind my amendment which makes the criminality contingent upon aggravated circumstances such as counterfeiting, piracy, organised crime or risk to health and safety. I think this covers the main reasons such procedures are needed and cuts out the risk from the normal way in which an invalid or suspect patent, design or trade mark is usually infringed (and no action normally taken) rather than expensive revocation proceedings being launched. Anyway, he understood so at least it gives him food for thought and it does not diverge from being a blanket approach across all IP which has some advantages in terms of legal base.
19.00 Shuffle the usual paperwork and emails then return to flat at about 8.00pm.
Monday 5 March 2007
Travelling
A late start today as there had been a meeting scheduled for London, which has been cancelled, but it leaves me with a 17.45 flight from London City Airport and the happy trundle through the east London river sights on the Docklands Light Railway, which I still quite enjoy. Get to the Parliament at 8.30 pm.
Thursday 1 March 2007
Cluster Bomb Protest and FSA
9.15 The luxury of a late start! More email exchanges then at 10.15 I speak to a group of postgraduates from Reading University.
11.30 I join Liz Lynne outside the Parliament for photos about banning cluster bombs. It is running late so I go to get my Eurostar tickets and that takes ages, but it is still running late by the time I get back.
12.15 Back to the office for a discussion with Andrew Duff about Kashmir and what I will say in response to questions in my Whip’s report to Party Conference.
12.45 Start the process of getting away as I have to leave at 14.00 for an appointment in London. The chap who organises FSA visits pops in and we discuss the usefulness of FSA secondment to the Parliament. I say it is very useful and also explain how the FSA presentations are really good but sometimes they fall down on questions by being too ‘correct’ and unwilling to hazard personal thoughts. I say I think it would be useful for the FSA to explain some of the teething troubles that can arise in having to change mentality from ‘tick box’ supervision to the more hands on dynamic variety the FSA now uses. We are asking other supervisors and countries to move in that direction and this is a much more accessible way to explain it, or at least I think so.
14.00 Off to Eurostar.
11.30 I join Liz Lynne outside the Parliament for photos about banning cluster bombs. It is running late so I go to get my Eurostar tickets and that takes ages, but it is still running late by the time I get back.
12.15 Back to the office for a discussion with Andrew Duff about Kashmir and what I will say in response to questions in my Whip’s report to Party Conference.
12.45 Start the process of getting away as I have to leave at 14.00 for an appointment in London. The chap who organises FSA visits pops in and we discuss the usefulness of FSA secondment to the Parliament. I say it is very useful and also explain how the FSA presentations are really good but sometimes they fall down on questions by being too ‘correct’ and unwilling to hazard personal thoughts. I say I think it would be useful for the FSA to explain some of the teething troubles that can arise in having to change mentality from ‘tick box’ supervision to the more hands on dynamic variety the FSA now uses. We are asking other supervisors and countries to move in that direction and this is a much more accessible way to explain it, or at least I think so.
14.00 Off to Eurostar.
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