Getting ready for the week ahead

5.30 Off to Luton airport. I am told by some of my fellow travellers that in September this flight is being discontinued. So I will have to find another plan. Seems as though the return flight will be at an earlier time (which will be good) but I will probably have to switch to Heathrow or Stanstead outbound. When I get to Basle there is no car there to take me to the Parliament so I have to hang around for an hour to get the car picking people up from the Heathrow flight.

13.00 arrive in the office. Dot (my stagiere) is here this week to give her a taste of what it is like at the Strasbourg end of things before she leaves. In theory this is not a busy week for me in terms of reports for which I am responsible, but there seem to be committee meetings and compromise amendment meetings building up. We start to print out all the documents piling in for these meetings. There are some things in the Gierek report on innovation that I do not like and I get an email from EPP MEP Lehne asking my view on the same paragraphs. I agree deletion a good idea, then I also come up with some partial deletion options that may be better and less of an adversarial approach. People are already beginning to ask which shadow rapporteur am I going to ‘do over’ this week! Not really fair, but another good reason to try and find compromise on partial deletions.

15.30 – 17.00 Group meeting. There have been elections for the European Parliament in Bulgaria so our colleagues who were the interim ‘appointed’ observers/MEPs now depart and are replaced by new people, all except one who stood in the elections and is returning and another who looks the same but turns out to be the identical twin brother!

17.30 The Lib Dem Parliamentary Party meeting. Nothing beyond ordinary discussion of upcoming votes. This session we will be voting on the outcome of the ‘accelerated second reading’ procedure on roaming changes for mobile phone calls. We are generally happy with the result, within the context of having to regulate being necessary in view of market failure. The safety ‘Eurotariff’ will be offered to all customers. Those that do not reply will be switched to it unless they have already negotiated a different roaming package, which some regular travellers may have done. This is not quite opt-in or opt-out, a bit more of a hoki-koki in out and shake it all about as Fiona put it! However it seems workable.

18.00 Back to the office to pick up papers for JURI (legal affairs) committee meeting on the Donnici affair again. A resolution has now been drafted, which I think is completely wrong in its logic

19.00 Legal affairs committee. The discussions proceed much as before with us and the UEN saying the conclusions do not make sense. We insist that we want a debate in plenary. We eventually take a vote and the resolution is passed. Not sure whether we have got a plenary debate or not, I guess it will go the Parliament bureau or Presidents or something like that to decide.

21.00 ECON committee with vote on postal services. Get to hotel at about 10.30