Tuesday The
day started with a review of yet another summit. All the usual comments, but I
did not hear Verhofstadt rant on about the "Community Method"; I
might have lost concentration. He did complain that Parliament was not included
in the summit meetings, only the Council. The proposal for action was widely
supported but rejected on procedural grounds, but a new treaty is on the way.
Barroso said that
the Financial Transaction Tax is to go ahead. Further remarks of his are
included in my video recorded Wednesday morning, on my web site soonest. He had
a real go at the Tories so these comments about voting might interest you.
There was the
"Single European Railway area", extending the original directive of
1991. In Amendment 104 premises not used for 3 years will be forcibly sold off
or converted to other rail use. That is not the same as "Compulsory
Purchase" which, in the UK
In any case this
report has caused friction between France
and Spain
In two other votes
the Tories were split. On" Strategies in the Mediterranean" 10 voted
against, 13 abstained, while on the "Attractiveness of investing in Europe " 11 voted against, 6 abstained.
Another report
introduces, "a new 112 service for citizens", 112 being the European
version of 999 calls. This is the eCall.
In event of road accident, an eCall-equipped vehicle will
automatically trigger an emergency call. Even if passengers cannot speak, eCall
creates a voice link to Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP)
It sends an emergency message, known as the minimum set of
data (MSD), including key information about the accident, such as,-
time, accurate location, driving direction (resulting
from accurate satellite-based data) and vehicle description and eCall can also
be activated manually.
Mobile operators will have to upgrade systems
Vehicle manufacturers will have include eCall modules
Member States will have to upgrade PSAPs to handle voice and
data
Effectively the overall system would have total tracking
capabilities of all eCall vehicles, regardless of emergency activation
Thus, satellite
tracking of cars for emergency. Fine, except that the tracking will be
continuous, with drivers not able to turn the transponder off. So, 'big
brother" will be able to determine where any car is at any time and its
speed. "Spy in the Sky" is coming, probably on new cars at first and
then retro-fitted to older cars. Who
will have this information? Good question, but I can't help thinking of the
casual way the DVLA will sell information on car ownership to almost anyone, as
those who have been fined by a cowboy parking company will know.
Wednesday No less than 8 reports on farming and the CFP voted on today, with
2 on animal welfare. Biggest vote was on ACTA, the Anti Counterfeiting Trade Agreement
with many other countries across the world which has brought the most enormous
lobby. Like all MEPs I must have received 1000+ emails all asking for a
"No" vote. Counter productive of course. Impossible to read them all
so delete. My computer had at least 750 in one continuous list, did I lose
other messages as I whizzed through them?
In the event this
was defeated by 39 votes to 478 and already some thank-you emails have come in.
However, all is not clear. There was first a move to have this postponed by
members who reckoned on getting a ruling from the European Court of Justice.
This proposal was rejected, 255 for & 420 against. We voted to take it now,
the Tories voted to postpone. In the vote on the actual report we voted
against, the Tories abstained, as did Labour and lib-Dems. In summing up the
Commission said that they would now take this to the ECJ for a ruling, as they
would not have done so if the vote had gone the other way. So ACTA is dead,
unless the ECJ perform a revival.
Member of the Civil Liberties committee, UKIP MEP Gerard Batten said today,
"UKIP are
in favour of internet freedom and against the criminalisation of offences in
ACTA under article 23.
Genuine
copyright and intellectual property rights must be protected, but the EU is
building up its own police state.
Criminalisation
opens up all types of sinister possibilities to prevent free speech, dissent
and alternative points of view.
The
three Establishment parties in the UK
are guilty of rank hypocrisy over ACTA because they allowed this treaty to pass
through Westminster
They
said it had no political or legal importance, which was false. It was only when
the media spotlight turned on ACTA that they changed their tune. Their actions
on ACTA are not credible, the LibLabCon are hypocrites and cannot be trusted on
this matter. "
There was also a
report on the preliminaries for the 2013 budget where the Budget Committee want
a 6.8% increase! Our EFD amendment to reduce the budget was defeated by 112 to 552
votes, while the ECR amendment to freeze the budget lost by 102 to 554 votes.
At least the Tories supported us on these votes but the whole report was
adopted by 540 to 93. So our contribution will go up again.
I need to close my
commentary today, Wednesday, because tomorrow will be impossible. The morning
has but two reports, The Rio+20 Summit
Derek Clark MEP 4th
June 2012
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