Barroso is elected as new Commission President

Yesterday saw the culmination of weeks of discussions, speculation and gossip over the European Parliament's vote on the re-election of the Commission President, Jose Manuel Barroso.

I had serious doubts based on the ex Portuguese Prime Minister's track record over the last 5 years. I have been a critic of his response to the economic crisis which lacked both strength and ambition. I wanted a stronger focus on tackling unemployment, and especially youth unemployment. I also believe that he has placed far too much emphasis on economic and market freedoms, to the detriment of workers rights - throughout the EU. The major issue here has been about the Posted Workers Directive (PWD). This is European employment law which allows companies to bring in staff from overseas on temporary contracts. I am firmly in favour of free movement of workers throughout the EU and indeed it is not a one-way street. Estimates put the number of Brits who are living and working abroad in the EU at up to 1.5 million, although I suspect the true figure is somewhat less.

The problem occurs when the working terms and conditions of local workers are undercut and undermined, including collective agreements between trade unions and employers. Recent European Court rulings have perverted the original intention of the Directive, allowing such agreements to be undermined by companies bringing in an entire workforce from another EU country. Labour MEPs and the Socialist Group in the European Parliament have been pressing the Commission for a review of the Posted Workers Directive to remedy the Court's judgement but it has been Barroso himself who has persistently refused such action.

I questioned him on this very issue, both in a private meeting with Socialist Group MEPs last week, and in a European Parliament debate on Tuesday (video above). His tune did change and he promised action but fell short of promising a full review of the directive. However it remained unclear as to whether his promises would be enough to overcome the damage of the Court rulings.

Therefore our group took the decision to abstain on the vote, given there was no other candidate to vote for. Mr Barroso did prevail with 53% of the vote - a narrow majority but one which relied on the support of a ragbag of eurosceptics. This outcome certainly does not leave him in a comfortable position for the next 5 years and he will be pressed all the way by Labour MEPs and the Socialist Group to deliver on his many promises and warm words.

Hidden and rip-off airline charges

I'm currently campaigning to put an end to all the hidden and rip-off charges levied by airlines on their often unsuspecting passengers..such as myself!

On a flight out for my summer holiday I was stung for an extraordinarily large fee for excess baggage which I had not been aware of at the time of booking. It is easy to say that we should all check the small print at time of booking but this often runs to pages and pages of largely irrelevant information. In any case I did check the small print afterwards and to my surprise it didn't detail the charges. It mentioned, with a scandalous lack of precision, that fees for excess baggage would be "charged at prevailing rate at time of flight". I also noted that a hefty fee for paying by card is levied and that this fee is in fact largely unavoidable unless you have an obscure type of debit card which you would have to go out of your way to acquire. This fee was 4.4% of the cost of the flight! When you add to this the cost of checking in, paying for hold luggage and any other costs levied, the total amount paid can be many times that of the advertised rate.

I had already raised this issue over a year ago but now have come back to it with increased determination. I am asking for a clear and comprehensive set of guidelines for airlines operating within the European Union to ensure no more unsuspecting passengers are ripped off!

An interesting opinion poll

I have just been handed an interesting opinion poll, looking at British public opinion towards the EU. The headline figure shows a fairly even distribution of opinion with 37% having a positive attitude to the EU, 40% a negative attitude and 17% neither positive nor negative.

But more interesting (and dismaying) is the figure which shows that over 83% of those polled said they knew little or nothing about the EU. That in itself is a damning indictment on the efforts of those of us who see the need for a strong Britain at the heart of a strong Europe and should set alarm bells ringing.

We need to be more effective in countering the negativity, distortions of fact and scaremongering which has become abundant. These untruths are peddled on a regular basis by those who falsely claim to represent our national interest and sadly they are blithely parroted by a considerable section of the British media, either too lazy to check out the facts or too biased to care.

This campaign of misinformation has lead to results in the poll which show that the average respondent believed that the UK's net contribution to the EU is 23% of gross national income. The actual figure is over 100 times less at 0.21%. Equally there is an acute lack of awareness that the UK government actually plays a hugely important role in deciding European laws. When asked how they would react if they were told that the UK government always has a say in the way EU laws are made, over 62% of respondents said it would make them feel more positive about UK membership of the EU. Implicit in this figure therefore is that at least 62% do not think the UK has a say in laws and that somehow they are decided by 'Brussels'.

Of course this is not true. The present UK government is in fact one of the most influential players when it comes to EU decision-making. The UK is at present an engaged, informed and highly influential member of the Council of Ministers. Rarely does legislation pass which has not been shaped and moulded by the UK and rarely will the UK ever be outvoted.

The poll also shows that public opinion does recognise the inescapable reality that so many of the major issues facing us can no longer be solved by nation states acting alone. Take climate change, protecting human rights, global poverty, security of energy supplies, global terrorism and the financial crisis. An overwhelming majority of those surveyed recognised that the EU has a key role to play in tackling these pressing issues.

These are not issues that can be resolved through a policy of distance and isolation. But this is precisely the rocky road that David Cameron and his UKIP brothers in arms would take our country down, given half a chance. He would lead the UK to the fringes, where his MEPs already find themselves. He would take us to a position where we would be powerless to tackle these issues. We would lose the power, influence and respect it has taken so long for the UK to build up among our European partners.

Not in my Name

Last week saw the fascist BNP shamefully take up their seats in the European Parliament. Together with Labour MEPs, I welcomed to Strasbourg GMB members and the 'Hope not Hate' campaign who were here to present a petition against the BNP called 'Not in my Name' -

Already the BNP has been making waves, with Nick Griffin suggesting the EU's immigration policy should consist of sinking immigrants' boats. He also betrayed his misogyny in calling my good friend and colleague Glenys Kinnock, the new Europe Minister, a "political prostitute". As an MEP and tireless campaigner Glenys has done so much for the people of Wales and to address the problem of poverty in the developing world.

The BNP claim to represent Britain but they do not. It is Labour MEPs who will stand up for British people and will do so with tolerance, respect for diversity and with a politics of inclusion, not division. I am determined to make sure that the BNP's stay in the European parliament is short lived.

Things are beginning to take shape

It's been an interesting week here in Strasbourg. We have been meeting to decide on the constitution of the new European Parliament and who gets the influential positions and membership of the Parliament's legislative committees.

For me, as leader of Labour MEPs it is the culmination of weeks of work, which began after the European elections, to get the very best possible outcome in terms of influence for our reduced group of Labour MEPs.

I believe I have done just that - we have a strong candidate for the Chair of the influential legislative Transport Committee, the highest-ranking vice-president of our European political group (Socialists & Democrats), as well as a strong presence, including a vice-chair, on the Economic and Monetary Affairs legislative committee - of vital importance given the huge reforms to our continental and global financial regulatory system which are now necessary in the wake of the global financial crisis. We will also be strongly represented on the influential Environment Committee at this most important time for tackling climate change and environmental pollution.

Our priorities are clear, we need to provide a strong voice where it matters most, on the important issues of today - global problems which can only be solved by European and global cooperation. I'm proud that Labour MEPs will be able to play such an influential role in shaping these vital decisions. Despite our reduced numbers we have retained our influence.

This contrasts remarkably with David Cameron's bedraggled Tory MEPs who don't know whether they are coming or going. Their influence, just at this crucial time, has plummeted. Their self-enforced exile from the mainstream centre-right grouping in the European Parliament (the EPP) means they have will have none of the key posts or allies necessary to build up support for their position. They are in disarray, with their most senior MEP, Edward McMillan-Scott leaving them and taking with him the only senior post they could have hoped to gain - that of Vice-President of the European Parliament. He stood for it as an independent candidate, and won the support of MEPs, eliminating the Tory group's own candidate in the process! And as if that wasn't bad enough, the disaster-prone Tories couldn't even win the chairmanship of the new parliamentary grouping they formed with the Polish and Czech right - that went to a Pole! In fact their whole group looks to be in danger of collapse - it would take just two MEPs to walk out for that to happen - a move that would see Conservative MEPs sitting alongside the likes of the BNP and the French Front National as non-attached MEPs.

The upshot is that the Tories, despite their superior numbers, have lost their influence due to a rash promise made by David Cameron back in 2005 in order to win the leadership of the Conservatives. While you might think that as leader of Labour MEPs I wouldn't be shedding too many tears, it does mean that on key issues of national interest, Britain's voice in the European Parliament will be under-represented and that is bad news for all of us.

A good day for mobile phone users

Two mobile phone-related pieces of good news today.

The first is a small, albeit important example this week of how common sense can prevail and how common rules can be beneficial and cost-saving.

The largest mobile phone manufacturers in Europe have "voluntarily" agreed to a universal standard phone charger , putting an end to the folly (both environmental and financial) of having different sized chargers for different makes and even different models of phone. I know I have accumulated a wide array of different sized chargers over the years which I no longer use and I imagine most other people are the same. To read some of the articles in the press today you would not know that this was in fact negotiated by the European Commission and the agreement was only possible due to the implicit threat of EU legislation should the manufacturers fail to agree.

The second piece of good news is that from today (July 1) legislation passed by the European Parliament means that mobile phone roaming charges within the EU will be reduced even further. The maximum cost of making a call when abroad in another EU country will be 39p a minute (€0.43) and the price of a text message will be capped at 9p (€0.11). Additionally data charges for e-mails and internet use on mobile phones should go down. Although no cap on the consumer price was set, the wholesale price (from mobile phone company to mobile phone company) will be capped at 85p (€1) for 1MB of data and this saving should be passed on to the consumer.

Not bad for a day's work!