First I should bring you up to date on some recent developments on the question of the Conservative party's relationship with the German Christian Democrats, the largest component in the "European People's Party" group in the European Parliament. We are allied members of the group as a sub-group called the "European Democrats", together with the Czech ODS party. You will recall that during the leadership campaign David Cameron pledged to lead the Conservatives out of the EPP altogether because a majority of its members support a closely integrated "federal" Europe. It was then gently pointed out to him that we could not leave what we did not belong to anyway, that there were certain advantages to being associated with a big group in the Parliament, that we are at the moment free to follow our own whips on any matter, - and that no-one else seemed to be much interested in joining us in setting up an alternative group. Even the Czechs are wobbly on this.

 

When we Conservative MEPs met David just before the summer recess I asked him whether he had met Mrs Merkel, the German Chancellor, and of course a Christian

Democrat. He replied that he had not yet had any formal meeting with her, which I thought was a pretty poor show. Future European leaders like David usually use the time before an election to make such important international links. One day soon we hope he will attend his first European Council meeting as our prime minister and it will be silly to walk into a room full of people he has spent his time avoiding. To date he has also refused invitations to the EPP party leaders’ meeting which always precedes European summit meetings: Merkel, Sarkozy et al attend – we are unrepresented.

 

Anyway, this month David Cameron did meet Mrs Merkel, in Berlin. (The Daily Telegraph published a photo of them together but could not bring itself to comment - which is probably just as well). They agreed to set up joint working groups on climate change and the environment, on security and counter-terrorism and on economic competitiveness. Furthermore David will address a German Christian Democrat parliamentary conference on security in Berlin on 26 October (general election permitting). Perhaps he will now attend the next EPP party leaders’ meeting and use it as an opportunity to tell them a few home truths about the draft Treaty.

 

So where does this leave The Pledge to “leave the EPP”? Well, its still there and is given substance by the Movement for European Reform. We formed this with the Czechs as a discussion forum that might develop into an alternative group for us in the Parliament after 2009. We found some Bulgarians who had succeeded in getting themselves elected (our former choice failed at this first fence) and they were quite interested until the EPP leant on them and intimated that they could not stay in the EPP and join the MER. They opted for the EPP and the hunt for stray Bulgarian MEPs resumed. I think the MER is a very good idea as a forum for reform, but so long as it is seen as a potential alternative group we will struggle for recruits. There are in fact plenty of people in the EPP - the Swedes for example - who are not federalists who would be happy to join then. We could be instrumental in tilting the intellectual balance away from federalism in the EPP -but only if we stay and work at it.

 

All this is important because it affects our party’s strategy in and attitude to the EU. I don’t know how David Cameron will deal with The Pledge. At some point he has to abandon it publicly by acknowledging that it was unrealistic and impolitic, rather than allow it to wither poisonously on the vine.

 

There were two parliamentary sessions this month. In the first one MEPs from many countries affected by floods and fires stressed to the European Commission the importance of getting aid quickly from the EU “Solidarity Fund” (EUSF) to the affected communities. In our case the problem is that the government delayed lodging an application until August 20^th in relation to the floods of June and July even though it could have applied immediately the damage was known.

 

In the southwest Gloucestershire was obviously hardest hit in July and has put in a bid covering non-insured damage to 4000 residential properties and 573 business premises flooded. (Payments from the EUSF are limited to non-insurable damage). The bid also covers damage to schools and community centres but the big cost to the Council will be road repairs, which are estimated to cost £24 million at least. We MEPs from the regions affected are keeping in close touch with the Commission and hope to speed things up.

 

The second parliamentary session, just ended, was over-shadowed by the crisis in Burma. We added our voices to the protests against the action of the military government and called for targeted economic sanctions against the regime if it fails to respond. At least we were able to make our views known directly to leading Chinese politicians since there was a delegation of them in Strasbourg. MEPs called on the UN Security Council (where China has a crucial veto) to empower the UN secretary general to take action to facilitate a transition to democracy in Burma and for the UN general assembly to take appropriate action. Aung San Suu Kyi was my contemporary at St. Hugh’s College: I often think of her and the huge pressure she must be under in these days.

 

On the environmental side I have been berating the European Commission for their extraordinarily relaxed attitude when it comes to ensuring that the Maltese government applied the EU law on the protection of migratory birds. We always knew this was going to be a difficult issue because of the strength of the Maltese hunters’ organisation and their predilection for blasting away at birds throughout the year. But the Commission’s belief was that the Maltese would mend their ways, down their       shotguns and take up knitting (or some alternative) and all would be well. This hasn’t happened and the slaughter continues. I believe only the ultimate threat of a hefty fine handed down by the European Court of Justice will work with the Maltese.