Enfield Liberal Democrats

Sarah's bulletin: 6 November 2009

EU history in the making: Lisbon treaty ratification

Hurrah! This week Vaclav Klaus, the Czech president, finally signed the Lisbon treaty. The treaty has been 8 years in the making, long even by European standards, and will come into force in less than a month, on 1 December 2009.

This is a historic moment in the history of the European Union. Finally, the EU is being given the means to offer leadership in international relations and the European Parliament and national parliaments are being given the voice they deserve in the policy-making process. The EU is not being given a 'constitution' as such, as was originally the (worthwhile) intention, but its decision-making procedure is being streamlined for a 27 member state union.

The UK press - and the Conservative party - is awash with Eurosceptic hype. Tabloid headlines have been along the lines of "Britain: The End" (Daily Express) and "Power drains away to EU as treaty gets go-ahead" (Daily Telegraph). But there are several features of the Lisbon treaty which actually reinforce 'national sovereignty', such as a strengthened role for national parliaments through a 'yellow card' system where 1/3 of them can push the Commission to reconsider a draft law; reinforcement of the principle that decisions should be taken at the lowest appropriate level; and the introduction of a mechanism for withdrawal from the European Union.

David Cameron's announcement that he will not hold a referendum if and when his party comes into power is threatening to rip his front and back benches apart. Yesterday two of his front-bench MEPs in the European Parliament - Daniel Hannan and Roger Helmer - announced that they were stepping down as spokesmen. To add to the party's turmoil, French government minister Pierre Lellouche told The Guardian, in a fierce attack on the Tories, that Cameron's decision to pull out of the EPP "has castrated UK influence in the European Parliament" and that their policy will leave the UK marginalised and irrelevant.

The crux of the 'Europe' issue in the UK is, in fact, one of political culture. Any undergraduate political science student will tell you that states can be divided into two main categories: unitary states like the UK where power is centralised and federal states like the US or Germany where power is shared between different levels of government. British citizens, used to the idea that their 'sovereignty' resides in one place - Westminster - find it difficult to get their heads round the idea of different levels of power and government. What the political establishment needs to communicate more clearly is that by being a member of the EU, power is not being lost, but pooled at a more effective level. This means Britain is not only just as powerful as all the other big member states in the European Union, but collectively the 27 are weightier than the sum of the parts.

Meeting Janet Napolitano....

Today, as vice chair of the US delegation and member of the civil liberties committee, I met the US Secretary for Homeland Security Janet Napolitano who gave MEPs a briefing and answered questions on a US perspective on transatlantic cooperation for combating crime and terrorism. I had the opportunity to recall to the Secretary that the relationship had to be about justice as well as security, and MEPs asked about a range of matters such as visa waiver and the prospect of having to pay around $15 in a tourist tax/administration fee for the new Electronic Travel Authorisation.

Progress has been made recently on a binding EU-US data protection agreement that would replace the case-by-case provisions relying on US goodwill that have accompanied the unbalanced data-sharing agreements so far. MEPs impressed on her the need to safeguard citizens' privacy, something which has not always been a priority in the past in our relations with the US, and we insist that there should be, in case of misuse, adequate redress channels through courts, not just administrative ones. We are very concerned about the use to which data such as that from air passengers is put, for example being used for data-mining and profiling. I have to say that the cordial tone did not disguise profound differences on these various matters.

....and Mehmet Ali Talat

I also this week met Mehmet Ali Talat, the president of the Turkish community in Cyprus. He is currently involved in difficult negotiations with his Greek Cypriot friend and counterpart, President Demetris Christofias. The Cypriot problem is very delicate - and there are things the EU could do in my opinion to help find a solution.

Andrew Symeou bail refusal confirmed

Londoner Andrew Symeou, from Enfield, who was extradited to Greece in the summer, has had his bail refusal confirmed on appeal by a Greek court. He was extradited under a European Arrest Warrant on a charge related to the death of a fellow young Briton in a Greek nightclub. What this means is that during the 6 month wait for his trial to commence - when most people charged with crimes of this nature would be allowed to live free, with conditions - he will have to remain in a Greek prison, simply because he is a foreigner. On top of this, the way the decision was communicated was completely unacceptable, with Andrew's lawyer not allowed to make oral arguments to the judge, and Andrew only being notified a month after the decision.

Even then he was only notified in Greek, and this highlights the issue of lack of interpretation and translation when a national of one country is on trial in another where he does not speak the local language. I am in fact rapporteur for a measure which would remedy this gap. We need to complement the European Arrest Warrant and strengthened trans-European powers of prosecution with trans-European rights to an adequate defence. Language is only a first step.

You can listen to the interview I did for Radio EP on the issue here.

You can read my previous work on this issue here and here.

A case in point: Italian conviction and CIA plane at Birmingham airport

This week an Italian court was the first in the world to convict someone of kidnapping under the practice of 'extraordinary rendition' or torture flights with which I have been much involved; I was vice-chair of the European Parliament's temporary committee on the matter. Robert Lady, the former head of the CIA in Milan, was given an eight-year jail sentence, and many other CIA and Italian operatives 5-year sentences, for having abducted Abu Omar off the streets of Milan and then transferring him to Egypt where he was tortured for four years.

This is in stark contrast to Britain, where it would appear that CIA planes are still visiting UK airports, and the Labour government still refuses to hold an official public enquiry into the torture flights. This week witnessed worrying reports that one of the American planes we in the European Parliament named in our investigation into alleged CIA torture flights landed at Birmingham airport last month and was met by British special force helicopters. It reportedly touched down from an undisclosed location and exchanged a number of passengers with another suspicious plane. British authorities say this is "routine military liaison between two allies"...

European Parliament wins concessions on internet users' rights

In tense negotiations between the Parliament, Commission and Council late Wednesday night the member state governments had to give in to the Parliament and guarantee that all internet users suspected of downloading illegal material would receive a "prior, fair and impartial procedure" before having internet access cut off as a punishment for illegal downloading. There cannot simply be a '3 strikes and you're out' administrative decision such as the French government and Peter Mandelson want, completely disregarding due process and the presumption of innocence. It is a pity MEPs could not obtain agreement to the need for a prior court ruling, but we did shift the governments. Although internet access cannot perhaps be described as a fundamental right, it is of immense importance and withdrawing it should not be done lightly.

US lifts ban on visas for HIV sufferers

Barack Obama announced last week that the US will overturn a 20-year-old travel ban on people with HIV that will come into force early next year. The travel ban is only one of the many examples of institutionalised discrimination against HIV positive people. The ban has prevented thousands of people from entering the country and has unnecessarily separated families. In April of last year I set up a petition, demanding that the European Union put pressure on the United States to repeal the ban and I thank all those who signed - we won!

EU history remembered: 9 November 2009

Next Monday will be 20 years to the day since the fall of the Berlin wall on 9 November 1989. But the fall of the Berlin wall is not in fact the only anniversary taking place on Monday. November 9 1938 was the 'Kristallnacht' when dozens of Jews were murdered and thousands more had their homes and businesses destroyed by the Nazis. And as if that wasn't enough 9 November 1918 is also marked by Germans as the day the guns fell silent at the end of World War I. In addition we hold our own Remembrance Day on Sunday (I will as usual be at the one in Islington) so then symbolism of this date is huge.

So this Monday, take a moment to think about the three wars these days commemorate - WWI, WWII and the Cold War. It is poignant because it acts as a reminder of how only two decades ago our continent was divided by an enormous iron curtain, and in the 70 years before that - not long in historical terms - was ravaged by deadly warfare between European states not just once, but twice. Now think that this is the same continent whose 736 legislators sit together in the European Parliament in Strasbourg and use words - not bullets - to settle their differences. As Victor Hugo, a French playwright and statesman said, when he addressed the International Peace Conference in Paris in 1849:

"A day will come when war will seem as absurd and impossible between Paris and London, [...], between Vienna and Turin, as it would be impossible and would seem absurd today between Rouen and Amiens [...]. A day will come when you France, you Russia, you Italy, you England, you Germany, you all, nations of the continent, without losing your distinct qualities and your glorious individuality, will be merged closely within a superior unit and you will form the European brotherhood, just as Normandy, Brittany, Burgundy, Lorraine, Alsace, all our provinces are merged together in France. A day will come when the only fields of battle will be markets opening up to trade and minds opening up to ideas. A day will come when the bullets and the bombs will be replaced by votes, by the universal suffrage of the peoples, by the venerable arbitration of a great sovereign senate which will be to Europe what this parliament is to England, what this diet is to Germany, what this legislative assembly is to France."

What foresight Hugo had. This, ultimately, is why I am in the business of European politics, why I support the Lisbon treaty and defend the phenomenon that is the European project, whatever the Tories, UKIP and their supporters think.

Have a good and peaceful weekend!

Sarah Ludford