A clutch of good-news stories

A flurry of EU activity just before the Christmas break will probably not get the publicity it deserves.

First, on 20 December, EU environment ministers agreed to include airlines in the Emmission Trading Scheme as of 2012. Airlines will have to meet pollution-reduction quotas either by reducing their own emissions or buying credits from other industries.

All airlines coming to and leaving the EU's 27 member states - not just intra-EU flights - will be included, which will guarantee another clash with the USA.

The decision comes just after the international climate change meeting in Bali last week in which the EU took a strong position in persuading other countries to commit to long-term environmental targets. Hilary Benn, Britiain's Environment Secretary, said "This is a bold step by Europe - in the week after the Bali agreement - which shows the EU leading in the fight against dangerous climate change."



The same week, the European Commission finalised its proposals (which must now come before Environment ministers and the European Parliament for approval) to force car makers to make greener cars from 2012 or face fines. Under the plans, cars should emit an average of 130 grammes of carbon dioxide in four years time or be subject to fines rising to €95 per gramme over the limit. Practically it is expected to mean that big gas-guzzling cars will become more expensive while smaller more efficient cars will be relatively cheaper, and have thus been strongly resisted by the manufacturers of large cars.



On another front, that of consumer protection, Neelie Kroes, the EU’s Competition Commissioner, has threatened to fine MasterCard for breaching EU competition law. This follows an extensive investigation by the Commission into competition in the financial services sector.

The Commission criticised MasterCard because of the fees it charges consumers who make cross-border transactions on credit and debit cards in other countries. The fees - known as multilateral interchange fees - apply to both MasterCard credit cards and Maestro debit cards and range from 0.4% to 1.2% of a transaction.

"Consumers foot the bill, as they risk paying twice for payment cards - once through annual fees to their bank and a second time through inflated retail prices paid not only by cards users but also by customers paying cash" said Neelie Kroes. She pointed out that the fees also make it more expensive for retailers to accept cards and that these costs are inevitably passed on to customers

The Commission has informed MasterCard that they have six months in which to get rid of the fees, otherwise they will be fined daily fees worth up to 3.5% of global turnover, which translates into fines of £4.5million per day.



Finally, the EU's borderless ("Schengen") zone expanded to nine mostly eastern European countries at midnight on Friday (21 December) in its biggest enlargement so far. Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovenia, Slovakia and the Czech Republic - which all joined the EU in 2004 - are involved. Land and sea border checks between them and the other Schengen countries are now abolished, while air borders are set to follow on 30 March 2008.

Practically it means that as of today, people can travel hassle-free between 24 countries of the Schengen area without systematic border controls - from Portugal to Poland and from Greece to Finland. Celebrations were held throughout Friday on several border points to mark the occasion. Britain's and Ireland's position outside this area remains unchanged.

The Tories and Schengen

It is always pleasantly surprising to see pro-European Tories fighting back against their party's all-consuming Euroscepticism. Last weekend saw Christopher Beazley MEP joining his new colleague Saj Karim in supporting the EU Reform Treaty. More unusual, however, was John Purvis's recent letter to the Financial Times supporting British accession to the Schengen free movement area.

At present, the UK and Ireland are the only two EU members to not have signed the Schengen Agreement: both have an opt-out. As islands, who do not have land borders with mainland Europe, the two countries share a Common Travel Area with no systematic border controls between them. Ireland is thus unable to join the agreement without dissolving this agreement with the UK, and incurring border controls at its land border with Northern Ireland. However, the UK remains reluctant to surrender its own border controls and work permit system. Therefore, while the UK and Ireland cooperate closely within the Schengen arrangements on matters such as police cooperation, judicial cooperation, and tackling organised crime, there are no imminent plans to be full members of Schengen.

In Mr Purvis's words, however, "any business person looking to the Schengen market would be crazy to site his head office in the UK. His staff would spend most of their time wrecking their productivity targets in disorganised queues waiting for the four available HM Revenue and Customs operatives in their fancy new uniforms to let them cross the "UK Border" - emblazoned on the wall behind them. If it is bad enough for UK and EU citizens, it is even worse for American, Chinese, any other business people and tourists - "guests" to our country."

It finishes with "once in the Schengen area (and that is now well controlled) they will next year have over 25 countries they can visit without hindrance - but not the UK. Be warned, foreigner!"

All of this is a far cry from William Hague's claims that British membership of Schengen would see us lose control of our borders and be flooded with immigrants!

It is curious to see Tony Blair lambasted in Conservative and UKIP circles for having "sold out to Europe". In much of the rest of Europe he is considered to have done precisely the opposite!

To read the Belgian or Italian press, for instance, you would have thought that Blair had single-handedly prevented the rest of Europe from carrying out the modest reforms it sought to the current EU system - or where he was unable to do so to negotiate instead an opt-out for Britain. Blair is, along with the Dutch, blamed for killing off the notion of an EU constitution. He blocked certain changes from unanimity to qualified majority voting. He has an opt-out of the Charter of Rights and kept Britain out of the euro and Schengen. He even opposed a reference in the treaty to the long standing primacy of EU law. I could go on - and many of the criticisms are unjustified. But they do illustrate how the Eurosceptic attacks on Blair in Britain are, to put it mildly, somewhat one-sided in their analysis.