Time flies! I’m off to Strasbourg for the second time now and I thought I should share some thoughts and observations from the last couple of weeks.

1-5 July 2019

First of all, the week of 1-5 July, the first official week of the new Parliament. It was an interesting week, with some real insights into political deal-making…

The formal opening of Parliament on the Tuesday was great – such an honour to be part of it. I really like the design of the ‘hemicycle’, the Parliament’s chamber – a semi-circle rather than an oppositional two-sided thing like the UK Parliament. It’s a shape that much better reflects the fact that politics is a spectrum.

I was paying full attention to the lovely music during the anthem, so I actually didn’t notice the Brexit Party’s rudeness in turning their backs. They haven’t managed to get themselves organised into a proper political group, and so they are sat up in the rafters at the back where they really aren’t very noticeable…

We sit in ‘wedges’ according to our political groups, and in alphabetical order, with the ‘big cheeses’ at the front. I’m at the edge of the Green wedge, next to Seb Dance, a Labour/Co-op MEP from London. It was good this week to make connections with some of the other pro-EU MEPs from other parties. We’re all keen to cooperate as much as possible to stop Brexit.

So, the first thing on the Parliament’s agenda on Wednesday was electing the President of the Parliament. I made a short video to try to explain some of the background. Essentially the Council (made up of the governments of the member states) was arguing for weeks over who would get the EU top jobs. The Parliament tried to assert its power through the ‘Spitzencandidaten’ (lead candidate) process, but the right-wing EPP’s lead candidate was blocked by the left-wing S&D and the liberal Renew groups, and as a result those three main parties ended up pulling together a compromise slate of candidates. Four of them were announced on the Tuesday afternoon by the Council. The fifth, the President of the Parliament, was elected the next day, and the S&D candidate, David Sassoli, won.

The really frustrating thing about this is that Parliament’s independence was challenged by this process. The Parliament’s lead candidates were rejected by the Council, and instead a ‘package deal’ was crafted. The Council pretended that the Parliament could independently elect its president, but of course it was part of the package (the EPP and Renew didn’t put up a candidate of their own, and instructed their members to vote for the S&D candidate).

It was good to see, though, that the Greens’ candidate for President, Ska Keller, secured 133 votes in the first round (i.e. 59 members of other political groups voted Green), and 119 in the second round. Clearly many other MEPs shared our opposition to the deal between the three main parties.

It is now for the new president, Sassoli, to demonstrate his independence and to stand up for the values of social justice and environmental protection that he espoused in his opening speech. The Greens will be watching closely and keeping the pressure up!

(A brief aside: I was leaving the Parliament at about 8pm that day when I was repeatedly – albeit fairly gently – pushed aside by a man in a dark suit while trying to get on an escalator. It took me a while to realise that he was Sassoli’s bodyguard, clearing a path for the President through the throng. Aside #2: On the Eurostar coming home, I found myself in the passport queue sandwiched between Brexit Party MEPs, with Farage and another one discussing what a shame it was that a certain oil tycoon wouldn’t give them money…)

Anyway, back to the business of the week. We also had to elect Vice Presidents and Questeurs (who are kind of like a committee overseeing Parliamentary processes). The Renew group, unbelievably, recommended that their members should vote for an EPP/S&D/Renew slate that included a member of Fidesz (the Hungarian party of Victor Orban who has been severely criticised for repression). The inconsistency with their espoused values was pointed out by a number of people, and I was relieved to hear directly from the Lib Dems that they had opposed this, had voted for Green candidates instead, and had emphasised to their Group leadership that this was unacceptable. Two Greens were eventually elected to become Vice Presidents.

The final session was a report back from Donald Tusk, who will remain President of the Council until 31 October. He had lots of warm words to say on Green issues, which seemed to be an acknowledgement that Green concerns had been sidelined in the deal reached between the Member States. But it’s not enough to have some warm words as a ‘consolation prize’. We’ve been elected to make change happen.

I was horrified by Ann Widdecombe’s speech. The sheer effrontery of comparing the Brexit campaign to the fight against slavery was absolutely breathtaking. I was glad that LibDem Martin Horwood made a counter-speech directly afterwards – but inevitably it was the rabid Brexiteer who got the media headlines. It turns out there’s a thing called ‘Catch the Eye’ after many formal statements, during which MEPs can make a request to speak, so I’ve made a note to get a speech ready!

So: overall, I had mixed feelings about the week. Being the first week it was inevitably concerned with positions rather than policies, but that will change in future plenaries. It was definitely frustrating to see that Parliament is still not able to operate independently from the Council. And it was interesting to note that this frustration is shared in other political groups too. The vote on the Council’s candidate for President of the Commission, due on 16 July, is not yet a done deal…

8-12 July 2019:

Last week we were back in Brussels, which feels very familiar now thanks to the time we spent there in June! I now have an office, which is very helpful – although it’s only temporary while renovations are being completed. Anyway, it was good to have somewhere as a base for me and my brilliant assistant Sian.

The main business for last week was constituting the Committees. These are absolutely central to the Parliament’s work – it’s the Committees that scrutinise and amend legislative proposals. They have real power. Don’t believe a word of the claim that EU law is made by ‘unelected bureaucrats’ – the civil servants make proposals but it’s the Parliament (through the committees) and the governments of the Member States (which are also elected, remember) that decide. And during the scrutiny process, proposals are often significantly amended.

I’m very happy that I got places on the committees I requested: INTA (International Trade) and DEVE (Development). The committees are always referred to by their four-letter acronyms! Within the UK Green Delegation (i.e. the group of 7 Green MEPs) we’ve managed to get a good spread across a wide range of committees so we can have input on lots of issues, but avoid duplication. I’ll put a full list on my website shortly.

I chose my committees because they relate closely to my profession background as an academic and campaigner on international development, but also because international trade is such a crucial part of the debate over Brexit. I think it’s going to be fascinating, and I’ll keep you posted.

We were straight into the detail last week in fact, with an ‘in camera’ briefing with the EU’s lead negotiator on the EU-Mercosur trade deal which was announced by the Council about 10 days ago. This is a massive trade deal with 4 Latin American countries (Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay). It’s been the subject of fierce criticism from Greens and others, particularly on environmental and human rights grounds. The deal basically enables Europe to export more cars to the Mercosur countries, in exchange for them exporting more beef to the EU: ‘cars for cows’. As we all know, cattle ranching is very destructive to the Amazon – and cows are also big greenhouse gas emitters. Beef farmers in the EU are understandably very opposed, arguing that meat should be produced as close as possible to where it is consumed. As someone who lives on an organic farm myself, I agree! I’m also worried that this deal makes it look as though the EU is ‘rewarding’ Jair Bolsonaro, who as President of Brazil is responsible for serious human rights abuses. So, the campaign against this Mercosur deal will be a big piece of work in the INTA committee over the coming months. There are many more ‘files’ to be worked on though, and I’ve expressed interest in becoming ‘Shadow Rapporteur’ onat least one of them. I’ll write more details another time.

My other committee place is in DEVE, the development committee, where I will be a ‘Substitute Member’ which means I normally won’t get to vote, but I will follow and contribute to all the work. A very practical example of this is the fact that I was able to submit, with support from other Greens, a proposal for a ‘Pilot Project’ on extending EU support for cash transfers (i.e. giving money directly to the poorest citizens in the poorest countries, e.g. through pensions and/or child benefit). There was a very short deadline for new MEPs to make proposals, so it was a pretty hectic process, but I feel it’s important to take all the opportunities available to make an impact, especially since as UK MEPs we don’t know how long we’ve got!

My proposal was initially blocked by an MEP from the ID group, the far-right, anti-EU ‘Identity and Democracy’ group which was formally known as the ENF, ‘Europe of Nations and Freedoms’, (or ‘Europe for Nazis and Fascists’ as it was commonly known…). The ID MEPs were frustrated that the pro-European parties had refused to support their candidates for Committee Chair and Vice-Chair positions. But it was possible instead to submit my proposal through the BUDG (Budget) committee.

In addition to the Committee meetings, I also met with Grassroots for Europe campaigners, got my whole Brussels staff team together with my West Midlands Constituency Coordinator, made progress with planning a big event in October, and had several training sessions. Four of us Green UK MEPs (plus 3 Scottish SNP colleagues) attended the European Parliament’s anti-harassment training, coincidentally on the same day that the White report came out on harassment within the UK Parliament. There is still much more to do to ensure that both Parliaments are safe workplaces for all; the Green group is leading the way in insisting that all members do the training. I also had one-to-one training on the EU budget which was very useful; I will post a summary as soon as I can!

On Friday, back in the UK, I gave a talk at a Malvern for Europe meeting, and then on the Saturday I spoke at the West Midlands Green Party Summer Gathering. This is always a wonderful event and it was a real joy to be there as the region’s MEP! Being elected in the West Midlands is a tribute to the amazing hard work done by so many members building the party up from the grassroots over many years. As an MEP I am constantly aware that I stand on the shoulders of so many, that this is an enormous team effort. I am so grateful to you all!