Kashmir, Credit Suisse, final Conciliation on Rome II

9.00 Get to the office. For once I do not seem to have a deadline upon me so I can look at various papers ready for speaking this evening to the Federation of Small Businesses at their South East policy unit dinner. Or at least that is how it starts! I then get a request from Diana’s office about whether I can attend the final conciliation meeting on Rome ll which could go on all evening until midnight. We try to see if anyone else is available, but they are not so I have to tell the FSB that duty calls. This will be my first conciliation, so it will be interesting.

13.00 LDEPP. Again a relatively routine agenda. The big issue is Kashmir, but we will resolve that in Group.

14.00 The EP FSF are holding their first annual forum on solvency ll. I go along to the first part. I can not stay for all of it as I have other appointments.

16.00 I have a meeting with Credit Suisse about the detention in Romania of one of their employees who was responsible for some of the privatisations in Romania. They were also going to see Sarah but as I have also invited some Romanian colleagues we decide to have one big meeting in my office. The main problem is one of due process in that it could take 5 or 6 years for the case to get to court. Anyway, Sarah and I decide to write to Commissioner Frattini and ask for a meeting next week.

17.00 Group. We discuss the Kashmir report. We manage to get an amendment tabled that says the inability to meet conditions for a plebiscite now does not rule it out for the future. We also discuss the new format of Parliamentary timetable proposed for next year. There are more non Brussels weeks so as to allow for delegation visits but some of us are concerned this will cause our ‘constituency’ weeks to get filled up with travel instead of being able to do constituency work. The other weeks are all mixed up more. In theory it gives more committee time. I am a bit concerned that it leaves very little time for working on reports etc.

19.00 Back to the office. I definitely have to do the conciliation. Diana is optimistic it will not take too long, others less so. It seems to me that all the times that have been submitted in the sweepstake on how long it will last are over optimistic.

20.00 We are all downstairs on level 5 where two committee rooms are being used for the Conciliation. The Council are in one room in ‘trilogue’ discussions with Diana Wallis (Rapporteur for the Parliament on Rome ll) and the Commission. The Parliament conciliation committee has another room, we also have some Commission people with us. Diana come to us and explains where we have got to and asks for a negotiating mandate within a range of options that she thinks the parliament could accept. Some advice/assistance on support for some wording is also sought from Commissioner Frattini who is in with us.

20.40 Diana heads back to do battle with the Council. The rest of us are invited to hang around. An impressive array of sandwiches, fruit and drinks is laid on which is replenished constantly. Some people go back to their offices waiting to be rung when it is time to reconvene (which could be at any time and several times), I intend to do that but actually find quite a few people I want to talk to are their from both the Parliament and Commission so end up having useful discussions instead.

23.05 Diana has emerged from the Council so we now reconvene in our room and discuss the latest state of affairs. We really are down to haggling over a few words and messengers are sent from one room to another and back. Eventually all is agreed and we take a vote. Then we go and join the Council in their room and formally agree that we have agreed. We all escape at about midnight. Apparently as these things go it was not too bad, there have been instances of negotiations going on until 3 in the morning in Luxembourg and then the Parliament people being shoved on a coach, driven to Brussels and dumped somewhere in the city centre in the early hours.