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Tragic events in Spain
The Labour Party's European conference and the stunning electoral victory of the PSOE, our Spanish sister party, this past weekend took place in the most tragic of circumstances. MEPs observed a minute's silence on day of the bomb attacks in Madrid and Eluned Morgan, who is the European Parliamentary Labour Party Liaison with Spain, wrote to fellow MEPs asking them to join her in a joint statement condemning the attacks.
New Spanish government
The electoral success of the PSOE - has been predictably picked by the press as in some way bad news for Labour and Tony Blair in particular (of course, had the PP won it would have been said to have underlined the left's isolation - this was one argument we could not hope to win). Reports that the election result may hinder economic reform in the EU are wide of the mark. The Lisbon reform programme was the work of Europe's socialist and social democratic leaders. Our parties remain firmly committed to its central aims and we intend, together, to make it the centre-piece of our common campaign for the elections to the European Parliament this June.
Plaid Cymru Isolated in Europe
The decision of European Green parties to stand on a pan-European ticket in the June 2004 elections left Plaid Cymru and their separatist allies isolated in the European Parliament. The Greens and the European Free Alliance (Plaid's group) only ever joined in a marriage of convenience and with that now coming to an end, Plaid find themselves friendless and powerless inside a tiny group of nine - and this includes Eurig Wyn who has already turned his back on the Parliament. It remains to be seen who Plaid will jump into bed with next.
Spring Into Action
Labour's Spring conference in Manchester gave some welcome impetus to the local and European election campaigns this month. Tony Blair stated that the Battle for the future of Britain is on. This month's Budget underlined the point. We have a crucial year ahead fighting to maintain Labour values in local authorities, the European Parliament and at Westminster. At Conference, Glenys spoke about Europe's place in the world alongside Jack Straw and at a joint EPLP-Westminster Foundation Fringe about the relationship between democracy and security.
International Women's Day This year we again joined with Rosemary Butler AM to host a successful International Women's Day Celebration at the University of Wales, Newport. Baroness Helena Kennedy was the guest speaker and we were delighted to welcome over 400 women from all walks of life and from all over Wales. Before the event, Glenys was in the Rhondda sharing a platform with Cherie Blair and Anita Gale. Earlier in the week Glenys opened the First Women's Festival in Monmouth, speaking about the struggle for equality in the developing world. It was an exceptionally well organised event, raising money for Women's Aid, and a charity that helps educate underprivileged women from Central and Eastern Europe. We are sure that the event will become even more successful over the coming years. It was typical of the Tories to try and sour the week between International Women's Day and Mothering Sunday by voting against funding the second stage of the Daphne programme. To date the programme has funded over three hundred projects throughout the European Union providing support for women and children who are victims of violence. In Britain this has included funding the charity "Until the violence stops". Fortunately, with the support of Labour MEPs, Parliament backed a funding extension of €50million.
Funding Helps in North Wales
Glenys and Eluned visited an array of European funded projects across North Wales this month, the innovation and determination on display exemplified the good work being done - over 9,000 jobs in North Wales have now been created with the help of Objective 1. There are plenty more on the horizon, with landmark projects such as the OpTic Technium in St Asaph, visited by Eluned, opening its doors to high-tech businesses in the coming months. Glenys saw funding helping out business too, at the North Wales Business Park at Abergele. She also viewed planned improvements to the Llandudno Conference Centre as well as seeing funding help at the other end of the skills ladder in Conwy and Wrexham, with the most disadvantaged members of those communities attending work-based skills programmes such as the horticultural training offered at the Erlas Project. The visits culminated in a lively Questions and Answers session in Wrexham alongside fellow candidate Gareth Williams and chaired by Ian Lucas MP.
Aerospace Conference
This conference organised by Eluned in Broughton, could hardly have come at a more timely moment, emphasising as it did the importance of aerospace to Wales, against the backdrop of the Mostyn dredging debate. Eluned and Rhodri Morgan, who was a speaker at the event, pledged their support to Airbus, and it appears that it is now a question of how and not if the situation will be resolved satisfactorily. The impressive array of speakers, including Gareth Williams held the attention of the audience for the full day as the conference explored key issues facing the industry in Wales - such as how to tackle skills shortages, the future of state aid and the role SMEs.
Big step forward for economic reform
Labour MEPs strongly supported measures to step up the pace of economic reform by strengthening intellectual property laws in the EU. The new laws to stop counterfeiting were overwhelmingly backed by the European Parliament. They will mean there will, at last, be a common European approach to tackling this type of fraud - dubbed 'the' crime of the 21st Century - in time for the accession of ten new members of the EU on 1 May. Industry sources say counterfeiting - the passing of substandard and fraudulently made goods as quality or branded products - costs the UK as much as £1.75 billion in lost VAT alone - enough to build four new regional hospitals every year. Being part of a larger single market protects our companies and creates a level legal playing field. Those who demand we leave the EU, or seek to undermine our membership, are putting our livelihoods at risk.
Labour beats off right wing privatisers
Labour beat off a concerted effort by the right in the Parliament to press for ever greater liberalisation and privatisation of public services. A report written by Labour MEP, Bill Miller on priorities for the EU's internal market had been mauled by the Parliament's right wing majority in committee - but Labour MEPs were determined to resist the right's onslaught when the votes in plenary came. On the day, in a series of very close votes, British Lib Dem MEPs voted with the Tories and their allies on the right. But the socialist group were able to win enough of the votes to be satisfied with the result - particularly on successfully resisting calls for a further liberalisation of the water market.
Campaign for Somaliland
On March 24th Glenys met a Delegation from Somaliland, including President Dahir Riyale Kahin and a number of Ministers. Glenys has worked with Cardiff's Somaliland community for many years, and with Alun Michael MP, to raise awareness of the campaign to secure international recognition of Somaliland.
See You at Conference!
Glenys, Eluned and Gareth will be holding a Question and Answer session in Conference at 12pm on Friday. Eluned's Cymdeithas Cledwyn will take place immediately afterwards at 12.30pm. Glenys will also be speaking at 5.30pm that day at the Labour Movement for Europe fringe. Please contact us if you need any more details about these events.