This month I announced that I would not be standing in the next European elections in June 2009. 25 years is quite long enough. I am keen that we should have more Conservative women MEPs, and that my successor in the South West should be a woman. Not that it is much of a job for a woman – too much travelling and being away from home – but the content of the work is fascinating. We also need to make an effort to ensure that the Conservative delegation to Europe reflects our society rather more. With only one woman MEP (me) out of 27 we risk producing a delegation that looks stranded in the 1930s. Any aspiring candidates should contact John Maples MP, the vice chairman for candidates, or Michael Dolley the regional European director.

 

The European Parliament spent most of the month reacting to events off-stage. The first of these was the summit of heads of government, which adopted some very ambitious policies to combat climate change. The European Parliament will play a key part in shaping whatever proposals for legislation the Commission now comes up with as a consequence of the summit’s decisions. The participants seem to have got carried away by a dramatic and demanding formula: they committed us to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 20 per cent by 2020, compared with 1990. Renewable energy will comprise 20 per cent of overall EU energy consumption by 2020. There will be a 20 per cent increase in energy efficiency by 2020 (I think this is the bit that may bring us the compulsory switch to energy saving light bulbs so book your optician appointments now because in my experience they produce a very dim light. But perhaps this change may spur someone to produce an effective energy efficient light bulb)

 

Problem: all this was blithely agreed without any discussion of costs. It’s pretty obvious already that there will be a great falling away from these objectives – if they are the right ones in the first place. Eastern European MEPs are making it clear that their countries are very reluctant to sacrifice the pace of their economic development by adopting policies that their low-cost competitors outside the EU can ignore.

 

This month the Conservatives organised a Brussels Conference of the Movement for European Reform – the vehicle for putting together an alternative political group for us to belong to after 2009. The only major party to attend were the Czech Civic Democrats whereas a new group, under Parliament rules, needs to attract at least 20 representatives from six parties – so there is still a long way to go. Mirek Topolanek, the Civic Democrat Prime Minister, showed why there is a community of view between his party and the British Conservatives when he rejected the idea of a Constitutional Treaty and called on the EU to complete the liberalisation process and finish building the common market – “Let’s forget about European unification: the future of Europe is in competition”. The two parties have now set up the “European Reform Commission” to look, inter alia, at how powers can be returned from the EU to Member States.

 

At the end of the month we had the debate on the adoption of the Berlin Declaration, marking the 50^th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Rome. The Declaration itself, cooked up by civil servants and agreed by governments without any input from MEPs, is written in dire Euro-clichés. The dread word “constitution” doesn’t appear in it. The crucial passage about the future of the EU is: “We must always renew the political shape of Europe in keeping with the times. That is why today, 50 years after the signing of the Treaty of Rome, we are united in our aim of placing the EU on a renewed common basis before the European elections in 2009.” Mrs Merkel, the German Chancellor, said to MEPs that she foresees a treaty that gives the EU new powers over energy policy and where fewer decisions on justice and domestic security matters are subject to the national veto. Most MEPs welcomed the Declaration. But the Conservative leader Timothy Kirkhope rejected the idea that it would lead to a complex new Constitution because: “The EU today is viewed by many, not least in my country, as a distant bureaucracy. They see us still as an over-regulated body that is encroaching on too many matters that should be the preserve of nation states. People want to see cooperation in Europe, but they do not understand why politicians in this Parliament spend so much time on constitutional and institutional issues”.

 

But the German plan moves forward: they want governments to decide in June to hold an Inter Governmental Conference on a possible revision of the Constitution in the autumn. This will be a new nightmare for Gordon Brown or Somebody Else.

 

I am glad to be able to report that the Commission is doing something about the various consumer scams that are operating, with an estimated 3 million adult victims a year in the UK alone. An EU enforcement cooperation network will establish minimum standards for national enforcement authorities. These will include the ability to conduct on-site inspections and order companies to cease illegal practices. The main scams concern bogus holiday clubs, prize draws, lotteries and sweepstakes. These are not just being operated in Britain by foreign-based companies. Friends in South Africa have alerted me to a bogus lottery operated from a Shepton Mallet address, and reaping its profits from the “registration” money gullible people pay in  order to be able to claim their prize. Somerset Trading Standards seem remarkably uninterested so maybe EU action will spur them into life.

 

This month I went home to Penzance for the excellent centenary concert of the Orchestral Society, founded in 1907 and still going strong – no EU aid, no EU regulations but a very good example of how local endeavours of this sort just keep going, sowing the seeds of love of classical music in the next generation. (The orchestra has a policy of running “Play Days” for young musicians). Members of my family (including me) have been playing in it over some 80 years. A message of congratulation from H.M. The Queen on the centenary was read out. Afterwards we adjourned to toast the Orchestra and there was a special cake. In a world where only evil makes headlines it is as well to be reminded from time to time that good things do go quietly on.