Enfield Liberal Democrats

Sarah's bulletin: 2 July 2010

Dear friends,

I have been in Bilbao in the Basque country of Spain this week, at an ALDE group meeting because we have an MEP colleague in our group from the (moderate) Basque nationalist party the PNV, which is not of course the one suspected of ETA links.

I plead guilty to the charge that being in Bilbao was rather pleasant! But it was not a jaunt; there was a serious purpose and value in being here. It was a reminder both of the absence of truth in the charge that the EU is creating a homogenous Europe with an 'identikit' culture - and London too has its own specific if very different culture as a European region, that of a cosmopolitan, diverse and multi-ethnic city - but also of the power of the arts in regeneration. Bilbao has of course 'reinvented' itself as a centre of arts and tourism, especially with the flagship Guggenheim museum, to replace the dramatic decline of its shipbuilding and other heavy industry. I am a great believer in the economic as aesthetic, entertainment and spiritual value of the arts, and one of the things I am proudest about in my time as a councillor in Clerkenwell is my role in helping the redevelopment of the marvellous Sadlers Wells.

There is definitely a unique quality to London, and no matter how much intertwined we become with other parts of the EU and indeed the world, London will always remain London and the centre of my particular universe. Over the next month BBC Radio 4 are marking this with a season of programmes about contemporary London and charting its rise as a 'capital of the world'.

One of the interesting meetings in Bilbao was at a fishing port with representatives of the Basque tropical tuna (skipjack and yellowfin) fishing fleet. Apparently these are no relation whatsoever to the endangered bluefin tuna, so it is perfectly OK for us to buy and eat it!

ALDE makes the difference as 'kingmaker' group in EP

Happily coinciding with the ALDE group gathering, the organisation Votewatch released a report http://www.votewatch.eu/ on influence in votes in the European Parliament:

'The Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) has in the first year of [the new parliament] been on the winning side most frequently of all the political groups ... replacing EPP as the previous 'winner' in voting situations in EP6. ALDE's record is particularly high on budget (99%), civil liberties (94%) and internal market (94%).' It also says that 'the delegation from Great Britain has almost always had the same line as that of the majority of the group (98% of votes)' - so I hope our group leader Guy Verhofstadt takes good note of our discipline and loyalty!

See also http://euobserver.com/9/30408/?rk=1. As a general remark, it is good for the reputation of the EP that 'during the first year of the new Parliament, the political groups have increased their cohesion rates and improved the attendance records of their members.'

Inquiry into allegations of UK involvement in torture

Foreign Secretary William Hague of course as one of his earliest remarks promised an inquiry into allegations of British complicity in torture and this week reports in the media suggested an announcement might be imminent. I welcomed the prospect and reiterated suggested in my press release here the elements that LibDems have previously called for, that it must be judge-led, held as far as possible in public, have access to all necessary security documents and personnel, and have in its remit the capacity to make suggestions for changes in law or practice and the investigation of all possible instances of involvement in torture, not just specific cases we already know about.

As well as being interviewed on BBC News Channel I had lots of news coverage of my remarks on this issue: in the Telegraph, the Guardian, the Mail, the Metro, Herald Scotland, the BBC News website and PA. See also a letter from Andrew Tyrie, the chair of the APPG on extraordinary rendition, to the Financial Times, about this.

William Hague on foreign and EU policy

The Foreign Secretary made an interesting speech yesterday, see here and FT report here.

I very much agree with his remark that 'the next twenty years is likely to be a time of increased danger in foreign affairs, it is also a time of extraordinary opportunity for a country that sets out to make the most of the still great advantages the United Kingdom certainly possesses'.

He is right that we must 'inspire other people with how we live up to our own values…., because now they are able to see in more detail whether we meet our own standards and make up their own minds about that' and that 'our foreign policy should always have consistent support for human rights and poverty reduction at its irreducible core and we should always strive to act with moral authority, recognising that once that is damaged it is hard to restore.'

It was pretty good on Europe in general 'we are determined as a Government to give due weight to Britain's membership of the EU' and Brits in the EU institutions 'the previous Government failed to give due weight to the development of British influence in the EU. They neglected to ensure that sufficient numbers of bright British officials entered EU institutions....the UK represents 12% of the EU population…but at entry-level policy grades in the European Commission, the UK represents 1.8% of the staff…as a new Government we are determined to put this right'.

But the UK is having to ask for a relaxation of language requirements because Brits are so bad at them, see here. This is why I have co-signed a motion to party conference on restoring language teaching in schools.

The only area where I think William Hague has a gap was about the UK contributing to making EU foreign policy stronger. Although he made one reference to 'the European Union's approach to common foreign and security policy', he seemed to prefer 'a distinctive British foreign policy that is active in Europe and across the world'. But many of us do not see the EU as 'foreign policy'.

Terrorism powers S 44 stop and search

More on this in weeks to come as I am continuing to support photographers harassed under section 44 of the Terrorism Act. Just to note that this week the ECtHR's January judgment against the UK (that these stop and search powers are disproportionate, notably in not requiring reasonable suspicion) became final since the UK government was refused leave to appeal. That appeal was launched under the Labour regime, and I am sure the new government will now move towards reform.

Victory for the European Parliament on the SWIFT data-sharing deal

MEPs have successfully managed to force EU governments to build much stricter data privacy guarantees into a new EU-US agreement on American access to European banking data for counterterrorism investigations. We terminated an interim deal in February on the basis that it unnecessarily breached high European data protection standards. EU governments and US authorities have now under our pressure agreed a new text which will have to be approved by the European Parliament in Strasbourg next week. The new deal will mean that Europol, the EU's police cooperation organisation, will check the validity of each US request, an EU official located in Washington will work alongside the US treasury to monitor the use of the data, and there will be means for redress in US courts in case of misuse. You can read more about my thoughts here, including my call for a global data protection agreement so that we don't have to keep fire-fighting like this on every data transfer deal.

Eggs by the dozen... or the kilo?

I mentioned last week the incredibly complicated votes on food labelling we had last Strasbourg session, where the green-amber-red traffic light labelling system was unfortunately defeated. Well there was a lot of talk this week as we discovered that the European Parliament proposal might lead to food items such as eggs and bread rolls being sold not just by number such as 6 eggs, or 4 bread rolls, but also having to be labelled by weight! This is clearly ridiculous (see here), and ALDE had put forward an amendment to exempt these kinds of products from the weight rule but it was unfortunately defeated. It would appear that the legislation as it stands (and it is not finished: it is only in its 1st reading and will now be debated in the Council of Ministers) is completely unclear as to whether eggs, rolls etc would have to be sold by weight as well as numbers or whether an exemption applies - this confusion is unacceptable and more work should have been done prior to the vote to iron out these issues.

Council of Europe calls for Europe-wide ban on mosquito devices

The parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe (a human rights organisation completely separate from the EU or the European Parliament) last week called for 'mosquito' anti-youth devices to be banned across the continent. This is something I have been campaigning on for years, as back in 2008 myself and a few colleagues put forward a European Parliament written declaration calling for a ban of the machines. They emit a very high-pitched noise that is unbearable and even painful for children and young people but inaudible to over-25s: the idea is to prevent youths from 'loitering' outside shops and in public places. Thousands of the devices are in use across the UK. To me they wrong in so many ways: young people should not be treated like irritating flies. Back in 2008 there seemed to be little awareness of them, but opposition now seems to be growing...

European same-sex marriage right 'only a matter of time'

This week is an important one for LGBT rights and celebrations: it is London Pride tomorrow, and I, as a strong supporter of gay rights, will join the march, which is always great fun.

But on a legal note the European Court of Human Rights passed an interesting judgement last week. The judges' ruled against the claim by a same-sex Austrian couple that they had the right to marry. But I think it was not as much of a disappointment as it seems at first glance. The verdict was ground-breaking on a number of counts, including the fact that it recognised that a stable same-sex relationship counts as 'family' and I was led to conclude that it really is only a matter of time before European law recognises gay marriage rights.

7/7 bombings inquiry

Next Wednesday will mark the 5th anniversary of the 7/7 London bombings, a time for Londoners to remember the 52 fellow Londoners who perished, but also to remember just how impressively 'One London' came together in the aftermath, helping each other through the panic and confusion. And indeed 'One Europe' showed entire solidarity. I well remember being in the middle of votes in the EP when the news came through and the Parliament stopped work. My French colleagues - who we had joshed the day before over the Olympic announcement - were the first to express their shock and sympathy.

It was announced recently that there will be coroners' inquests into the deaths of the 52 people who died, and that these will include in their remit the alleged failures by MI5 to connect the dots (two of the bombers were already on their watch list apparently) and the emergency operation in the immediate aftermath of the attacks. The intelligence and security services will be obliged to give evidence, which makes the whole inquest much more credible. Again, discovering the truth about what happened is always the best way for victims and their relatives to come to terms with what happened and for the authorities involved to learn their lessons.

"I'm going on holiday to the European Union"?

It may sound strange to our ears, but American and Asian tourists might well be uttering those words soon, if not already. New plans will involve the EU marketing itself as one single tourist destination under a single brand, with adverts featuring Tower Bridge, the Eiffel Tower and the leaning tower of Pisa. Why not? Distances in the EU are after all minimal compared to giants such as China, the US and Russia, and sold as a package the EU is unrivalled in terms of the food, culture and natural beauty it has to offer!

Deafness Awareness Week

My recent work in interpretation and translation rights, and indeed my experience with my own mother, has led me to become much more aware of the issues facing people who are hard of hearing. This week is Deaf Awareness Week, and RNID is promoting a number of major themes on how we can help the deaf and hard of hearing, even things as simple as repeating yourself until you're understood, looking and talking directly to a deaf person and including deaf people in conversations so that they do not get isolated. Then there all sorts of 'communications solutions' such as subtitles, sign language interpreters, lipreading, induction loops (that need to be turned on!) and notetakers. All of these steps can be an immeasurable improvement in deaf peoples' lives. I will explore how I can help, in future for in getting all cinemas and theatres to use subtitles and loops.

Judges quash UK troops human rights ruling

The UK Supreme Court ruled this week that the Human Rights Act does not apply to British troops fighting abroad. Of course I understand the difficulties involved when on the battlefield, but surely applying the Human Rights Act to ensure troops are properly equipped is reasonable? But this shows that our human rights law is relevant to all of us, not just the asylum-seekers or terrorism suspects whom the HRA-bashers say are the only beneficiaries.

Best regards,

Sarah Ludford