Whenever
I am in Brussels, which to be honest isn’t that often, I always try and touch
base with our Lib Dem Euro MP, Sir Graham Watson. I have described Graham many
times as our man at the EU because of our six elected MEPs he is by far the
most proactive on our behalf.
I met
up with him for coffee last Thursday before he headed off for a busy Brussels
day and then flew home to his constituency, which could be anywhere in the
South West of England or indeed Gibraltar.
I was
taken up to Graham’s office by Sonia, one of his hardworking team. Sonia has
skills involving throwing coffee cups in to the air, which are rare even at the
EU, but my lips are sealed. However she gave an interesting insight in to
Graham’s widespread constituency.
Euro
MPs are allowed to claim for travel to and from their constituencies. However
she was having a lot of trouble with the EU’s fees office over Graham’s travel
to Gibraltar. Officials could not understand why the UK MEP for the South West
of England was flying to Gibraltar and even on occasions to Málaga. There is no
other constituency of this type in the EU and of our six Euro MPs Graham is a
frequent visitor whilst the others are not.
Needless
to say the two key topics on our agenda over coffee were EU related. The
awaited report by the EU inspectors on the summer border chaos and the
Commission’s State Aid enquiry.
There
is still no word on the outcome of the inspection at our border although it
took place around a month ago. However I suspect four weeks is not a long time
in Brussels. Graham has been pushing for the report to be issued and is very
bullish on what he believes should be its conclusions. Graham here has two
advantages: he has sat in the queues himself and he knows how the EU works so
he hopes justice is done and is seen to be done in Gibraltar’s favour.
The
European Commission’s decision on starting a State Aid enquiry had just been
announced and was welcomed by our own Government who believe we are in a good
place. Indeed anybody who listened to our Chief Minister, Fabian Picardo, speak
on BBC Radio Four’s Today programme at the crack of dawn on Monday will know he
totally disarmed what was set to be an aggressive attack from his business
affairs interviewer.
Graham
had been monitoring the Twitterati in Gibraltar who had smelt a rat in that it
was a Spanish Commissioner who would be investigating our affairs. It could not
be any other way as Joaquín Almunia is the EC Commissioner in charge of this
specific matter and the EC has to investigate a complaint when it is laid.
However
as I pointed out to Graham and have written here previously Joaquín Almunia is
hardly flavour of the month in Madrid and is not on Rajoy’s Christmas card
list. In July he declared that Spain’s ship yard subsidies were illegal and had
to be repaid with the industry warning that 87,000 jobs could be put at risk,
many in Almunia’s home territory. The figure paid out in subsidies is 2.8
billion euros but the figure to be repaid, which could be 20 per cent less, has
yet to be fixed. When you are an EC Commissioner you serve the EU not the
country that appointed you.
The
elephant in the room whilst we sipped coffee and chatted was would Graham be
here this time next year. Indeed I had just attended in Brussels a PES election
strategy meeting designed to get socialists in and others including Lib Dems
out. Interestingly though when I voiced my support for Graham to PES members it
was clearly obvious he was highly regarded in the socialist camp.
The
South West of England constituency of which Gibraltar is part is not typical of
the UK. Graham admits this will probably be his hardest fought election yet.
The Lib Dems are on the slide and it remains to be seen how UKIP and the
Conservatives will do in a Euro seat where they hold two and three seats
respectively. I along with many others will be working to ensure one of those
seats at least goes to Labour. None-the-less I will also be supporting Sir
Graham Watson the Man because I believe if he loses his seat, Gibraltar will
lose its most powerful advocate in Brussels.
