Things eurosceptics don’t want you to know #5
Non-EU countries Switzerland & Norway both have much higher EU immigration than Britain. (And Norway obeys EU rules that it can’t influence, including free movement.)
2015
Yearly Archives
-
-
Things eurosceptics don’t want you to know #6
The US, Australia, Canada & Ireland have all gone on record to urge us to stay in the EU. (We don’t have to take their advice, but sometimes it’s good to listen to your friends.)
-
Things eurosceptics don’t want you to know #7
A great way to cut red tape: consolidate 28 sets of national regulations into one shared set.
-
History has stopped repeating itself
The Battle of Waterloo was one of the great milestones in European history — and today marks the 200th anniversary of the episode that concluded an extremely prolonged military campaign. I’m delighted to be attending the Waterloo 200 Service of Commemoration at St. Paul’s Cathedral today to mark the occasion. The ceremony is testament to […]
-
Message to GMB congress
Sadly, I wasn’t able to make it to the GMB congress in Dublin, but here is my message of greeting to them.
-
TTIP postponement
Today’s much-anticipated vote in the European Parliament, which was to lay out our position on the ongoing Transatlantic Trade & Investment Partnership negotiations, has been postponed. The new date for the debate and vote has not yet been confirmed. Nothing else about the debate has changed. We continue to argue for a TTIP that benefits people on both […]
-
This week’s vote on TTIP
The debate about a possible future Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership continues, with a lot of attention focusing on an upcoming parliamentary vote this Wednesday 10 June. As a Labour MEP, I am fully opposed to the so-called ‘investor-state dispute settlement’ scheme (ISDS), and will vote accordingly on 10 June. This is not yet a […]
-
Unfair labour practices in Asia shrimp farms
Question According to a report by Fairfood International, published on 8 April 2015 and not yet refuted, shrimp farms in Asia are employing labour at well below real wages (EUR 8 per worker per day) and under unacceptable labour conditions according to EU standards (60 hours per week). According to the report, shrimp produced under […]
-
A particularly blinkered kind of euroscepticism
Every commentator and his dog has advice to offer Cameron on his EU referendum strategy. I made a few suggestions myself in the Guardian last week; now it’s the turn of Matthew Elliott, who heads up a eurosceptic pressure group, to do the same in the Telegraph. Most of Mr Elliott’s ideas seem sensible at […]
-
Fishing mortality
Question Does the Commission regard Fmsy as an upper limit for fishing mortality as laid down in the common fisheries policy, Article 2.2 and the UN Fish Stock Agreement? If so, can the Commission then justify why the ICES was requested to provide plausible values ‘around’ Fmsy for stocks in the North Sea, in contradiction […]
-
Building a majority against ISDS
My colleague Jude Kirton-Darling MEP has written a useful update on the state of play regarding TTIP, including a detailed explanation of the work Labour has been doing so far and what happens next: If adopted as such by the plenary of the European Parliament, the motion will send strong messages to the Commission. One […]
-
European reform is already happening
The article below first appeared today in The Guardian and is reproduced with permission. It’s rare to find a politician in Europe who can talk about the EU without mentioning the R-word. Reform is the apple pie of European politics: every politician wants a slice. This is fair enough. Nobody would seriously argue that the […]
-
Remembering Heysel
Thirty years ago today, I was in Block Z of the Heysel stadium, while 39 people died just a few metres away from me. The memory of this has haunted me ever since. It was also a sobering lesson of how public authorities can try to absolve themselves of any blame, something sadly witnessed again […]
-
EU referendum: who gets to vote?
Two thirds of the way into her speech at the State Opening of Parliament this afternoon, the Queen announced what we’ve all been expecting: “My government will renegotiate the United Kingdom’s relationship with the European Union and pursue reform of the European Union for the benefit of all Member States. Alongside this, early legislation will […]
-
Commission fisheries visits
Question How many visits (over the last five years) has DG MARE conducted, at the level of senior or junior officials, to meet with fishers’ organisations or practitioners in Member States and their regions, in order to consult on and explain the 2013 Common Fisheries Policy reform, and how many such organisations or practitioners have […]
-
Labour MEPs welcome Commission’s proposals for better regulation but warn against deregulation
Labour MEPs have broadly welcomed the European Commission’s proposals for better regulation, but warned against deregulation of social and consumer rights and environmental measures. The Commission, responding to pressure from the European Parliament, today published its “Better Regulation” package: a proposal to revamp the EU’s legislative procedures to improve effectiveness and transparency and to subject […]
-
Cleaning up our minerals supply chain
Tomorrow sees a crunch vote in the European Parliament to tackle the deadly trade in conflict minerals around the world — an issue on which I’ve received more than a thousand messages over the past few months. Minerals such as tin, tungsten, tantalum and gold are part of many European companies’ supply chains. But the […]
-
An open letter to David Cameron
British Influence have today published my open letter to David Cameron. The full text is below. Dear Prime Minister, Firstly, congratulations on your election result. Your majority is thin, and your government will be fragile — but it is a government nonetheless. In the course of winning power, you have committed us all to a […]
-
Impact assessment on the statute for a European mutual society
Question In its answer to Written Question E-001717/2015, the Commission stated that, in view of the current lack of unanimous support for a European mutual society statute, it does not intend at this stage to initiate such a proposal and that therefore ‘there is no need for the Commission to publish the text of the […]
-
Response from the Commission on VAT
Readers of this blog will know that I’ve been providing regular updates on the work Labour MEPs are doing to address the so-called VAT-MOSS issue, where originally well-intentioned changes to cross-border VAT rules have ended up affecting small and micro-businesses severely and disproportionately. I’ve raised the problem in conversations with Frans Timmermans, First Vice-President of […]
-
Cameron’s difficulties start now
There will be no honeymoon for our returning Prime Minister. He can savour his moment of triumph, but governing over the next five years with such a slim majority — the smallest of any incoming Conservative PM since the 1840s — will leave him in hock to even the smallest of rebellions on his backbenches, […]
-
We didn’t vote against transparency
The Times ran a story yesterday on the vote in the European Parliament to discharge the annual budget, and specifically on a vote we took on transparency of MEPs’ expenses. (Read the original story here — not free.) The Times alleged that MEPs across the political spectrum — including Labour, Tories and UKIP — voted […]
-
At le Bar de l’Europe
An extended, light-hearted interview for French TV about British attitudes to Europe. It’s in French, so I’ve also provided an English transcript.
-
Why universities need Europe
Later this evening, the Times Higher Education Supplement will publish its rankings of the top 100 universities in the world which were founded in the past 50 years. In previous years, British universities have been very well represented in the list. In 2014, no country in the world had more entries on the list than […]
