Constituent email: ACTA

Following on from my motorcycle post earlier in the week, another hot topic in the constituency mail inbox this week is ACTA.


More information on ACTA can be found here

The majority of these emails that I'm receiving are concerned about how the ACTA legislation could develop over time to potentially infringe privacy.

The following is an extract of my reply so people can know where I stand on this issue:

"SOPA, and PIPA that are currently being debated in the United States would effectively close down the free internet entirely, using the excuse of protecting Copyright. The EU soon will be debating the ACTA Treaty which like the SOPA and PIPA threatens the exchange of knowledge and information on the Internet; in any and all circles where the information could be deemed to be someone else's 'property'. We believe itself should not exist in any form. It is a catastrophic violation of individual private property, and so we will oppose ACTA when the final bill comes up for vote in the European Parliament.  
No-one would disagree with the need to oppose and control infringement of IP/Copyright, but ACTA is not the way to go about this.  ACTA like SOPA and PIPA criminalises the general population and strangles innovation and freedom of speech and expression"

I will keep my constituents informed on this important issue.

Other stories about ACTA today:

Anti-ACTA march in Poland http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-16735219

European Parliament rapporteur quits in Acta protest http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16757142

Now State Aid for the Germans!

Today in Strasbourg, the European Parliament gave it's assent to an extension of the derogation from Article 182 (4) of the Single CMO Regulation, under which Germany may provide state aid to the German Alcohol Monopoly. This derogation was due to expire on December 1st 2010, but it now appears likely that it will be extended until January 1st 2018.


The concepts of monopolies and state aid are anathema to a competitive free-market economy, which is what the EU aspires to be.


The much needed and long-awaited reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in 2013 will now be undermined by the continuation of this derogation. Much of the 110 million euros in subsidy per annum goes directly to farmers, and there is a danger that the extension of the derogation may set a new precedent in the EU, where farmers now often concentrate on chasing subsidies rather than on following the market.


The West Midlands has seen too many well established businesses relocate to other EU countries as a result of financial incentives provided by the European Commission. We have a tradition of brewing and distilling - will we now see those industries threatened by state subsidised continental monopolies?


Mike Nattrass and I voted against this derogation - sadly too many other British MEPs approved it

Strasbourg Latest: EU threatens to push women out of the workforce

I eventually got to Strasbourg by car and avoided running out of petrol as many petrol stations were close due to the latest strike.


I managed to get here just in time to make my speech on Maternity rights.. This latest piece of social legislation, if passed will cost the UK up to £2 billion at a time when public and private sector workers are being made redundant in order to save far smaller sums.


At a time when governments across the EU seek to cut public expenditure, the EU seeks to increase employments costs, which will hot a sector where women are disproportionately represented, and therefore are most exposed to the possibility of job cuts.


If this is passes, it will actually have the effect of setting back the process of achieving equality for working mothers. It also opens up the horrible possibility that employers may choose male candidates over women.


These Europhiles are living in a Euro Disneyland, they have no real understanding of the effects of their 'wish list' whilst governments are slashing public finances the EU wants an increase of 5.9 % and only two weeks ago increased their entertainment budget by 85% to two million euro's.


We will be voting on this proposal on Thursday.

Make sure to tune into BBC Hereford & Worcester tommorow @ 8.30am to hear me talk about the controversial proposed EU maternity legislation

Strasbourg second September session

The European Parliament this week passed a report calling for a common EU policy on security of fuel supplies. In the light of successive cut-offs of fuel supplies from Russia, it is clear that some action is necessary. It is a mistake, however, to attempt to address the matter at EU level.

A major factor working against our interest is the fact that so much of our fuel transits third countries. We then become hostage to fortune when those countries fall foul of the Kremlin, and we quickly find ourselves facing rising costs and fuel shortages. Any legislative tool that seeks to address this problem should bring on board states such as Turkey, Ukraine, Georgia, and ideally China and the major Eurasian suppliers. To attempt to impose EU legislation on these countries is simply unrealistic.

We might be better served by a voluntary international instrument along the lines of Montreal Protocol, which quickly and drastically reduced global production of ozone depleting substances, and which was able, through imaginative means, to include developing nations as well as those at the top of the economic ladder.

Within the EU there is discord over fuel strategy, with various member states cutting bilateral deals with Moscow behind the backs of the others. This is a practice that the Kremlin seeks to encourage, and which it rewards as it works to divide western Europe. It is also the fact that the EU moves at a grindingly slow pace, and is an easy adversary to out-manouvre.

In this case, the EU cannot provide the solution to our problem, and we must either look to an international protocol, or task our government with pursuing bilateral deals, as is the case with the French and Germans.