Letter from Strasbourg
Has PASOK’s veteran MP and former culture minister Evangelos Venizelos – who has been looking rather tired lately – at last got party leader George Papandreou on the run, or is it the other way around? At the moment it is unclear. The so-called socialist main opposition party meets on November 11 to elect PASOK’s leader – from among the aforementioned two candidates and possibly one more – for the next four years. It is an unprecedented and novel predicament for the party faithful who have resolved to rally their forces and pull party members back into the fold or threaten them with «isolation and elimination as a revolutionary sect on the fringe of politics.» After the party sustained a grave and unexpected defeat in general elections earlier this month, the performance of some candidates was inviting unflattering comparison with that of, say, European leaders. Significantly, few Greek politicians look beyond our borders in similar situations, although they should. Now, while every national newspaper reports regularly from the Greek Parliament (highlighting that the parliament is chiefly occupied with the transposition of EU decisions into Greek legislation), stories about the EU Parliament are rare. Furthermore, despite the fact that uninteresting backbenchers in our national parliament are regularly featured in such reports, leading politicians in the EU are hardly known in this country. Today the European Parliament’s second plenary session convenes in Strasbourg. The Parliament has two meeting places: Strasbourg, France, which serves for plenary sessions and is its official seat, and Brussels. Once a month it meets for three days in Strasbourg except in September when it meets twice. In addition, six two-day part-sessions are held in Brussels throughout the year. Four weeks are allocated to allow members to dedicate themselves to constituency work. So every month, MEPs and officials trek solemnly back and forth across the roads and skies of Europe. Oh yes, the European Parliament’s Secretariat, it’s administrative body, is based in another country – Luxembourg. Understandably this madness of having all MEPs and their staff moving several times a year from one place to another entails an enormous cost for the hapless European taxpayer. Some refer to it as a «traveling circus.» Of course, the EU Parliament serves the second largest democratic electorate in the world, after India: around 496 million EU citizens. On today’s agenda in Strasbourg are such subjects as immigration, dangerous toys imported from China and renewable energy. Tomorrow starts with a debate on sugar, something of interest to Greek farmers. We may remember that the sugar reform as proposed by the European Commission has already left a bitter taste in the mouths of Greek MEPs who termed it both «incomplete» and too radical. EU sugar policy reforms, which were formally adopted by the EU Council last year, were designed to close unprofitable sugar operations in Europe. Some months ago Greece announced a plant closure in Xanthi. No doubt the future of the remaining four production facilities belonging to the Hellenic Sugar Industry (EBZ) monopoly may largely depend on a continued political commitment to prevent further closures In general, the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) of the EU has often been condemned as too expensive, unwieldy, wasteful and practically incapable of proper reform. The practices of the past, when farmers were paid a fortune to produce food nobody wanted, have ceased. Now farmers are mainly paid vast amounts not to grow any food at all. And the process of rural depopulation continues. The spectacular waste, the manifest absurdities of the CAP and its inefficiency have often threatened the European dream. By the end of this week there will be six new Greek MEPs. The old ones will by then have moved to the Greek Parliament. The key debate of this week will focus on immigration. The house will also vote on a report on a Commission proposal to make it easier for EU citizens residing in another member state to vote and stand in elections for the EU Parliament. Wednesday afternoon will see the European Parliament return to a well-known issue with a debate on secret detentions and unlawful «extraordinary renditions» involving Council of Europe member states. One may remember the revelations two years ago that the CIA had been hiding and interrogating some of its most important al-Qaida captives at a Soviet-era compound in Eastern Europe, according to US and foreign officials familiar with the arrangement. On Thursday the House will debate a non-binding report on sexual equality. Undoubtedly, this kind of equality may add some further problems to our ailing pension system as in Greece the average age at which women and men take their pension differs. Strasbourg, the capital of Alsace, is seen as a symbol of reconciliation between France and Germany, as the town has regularly been grabbed by the Germans and returned to the French over the past centuries. Today it remains a blend of Teutonic gaiety (maybe due to the excellent beer served at the Oktoberfest) and French finesse. Should we – the rest of us Europeans – deny the implication that only France and Germany really matter in the EU? We – us Greeks – can dispute this once Turkey joins the EU. For we could then maintain that Thessaloniki symbolizes Greek-Turkish reconciliation and get the city upgraded.
