20-20-20 VISION ON CLIMATE CHANGE COULD BOOST SCOTTISH JOBS
The European Commission President used a special sitting of the European Parliament in Brussels to present an ambitious new Action Plan for Climate Change and Renewable Energy. The purpose of the action plan is to make Europe “the first economy of the low-carbon age”. The aim is a 20% cut in greenhouse gas emissions, a 20% increase in energy efficiency, and to have 20% of energy from renewable sources, such as wind or wave power – all by 2020. The plan will completely overhaul the way we tackle climate change and will provide an opportunity for Scottish companies to become leaders in the fight against global warming. Welcoming the plan, the Socialist Group emphasised that the energy package should not disadvantage European businesses and will only succeed through an alliance between industry, workers and the environment. Here in Scotland, the STUC are ahead of the game with a conference planned for Friday 15 February on ‘Climate Change and the Scottish Workplace’ at which I will be highlighting the work of the European Parliament’s Climate Change Committee and the possible threats and opportunities for employment in Scotland as a result of the new Climate Change package. For more information on the ‘Climate Change and the Scottish Workplace’ conference contact Stephen Boyd at: Sboyd@stuc.org.uk

TACKLING NEW HEALTH THREATS AT WORK
The European Parliament has backed measures to protect workers from a new generation of health threats at work. Labour MEPs are leading the fight against the use of new cancer-causing chemicals in the workplace as well as supporting measures to combat muscle and bone disorders such as back pain and repetitive strain injury. Two specific areas that have been identified for special attention are: violence against workers - a worrying new trend; and measures to assist disabled workers and workers from vulnerable groups. With regard to violence in the work place, those workers in contact with the public are at most risk. The British Crime Survey has shown that over a 12-month period there were approximately 339,000 threats of violence and 317,000 actual physical assaults by members of the public on British workers. Measures must be introduced to tackle this problem. The new Directive on Health and Safety at Work calls for special attention to be paid to disabled workers and workers from vulnerable groups, including migrant workers, young, ageing and temporary agency workers. European-wide studies show that for these workers the rate of occupational accidents and diseases is much higher than the EU average. Most of these workers are at the lower end of the income scale and at higher risk because they lack training and awareness of neither their rights nor of the risks involved in their work.

MEPs QUIZ MUSHARRAF ON BHUTTO, ELECTIONS AND FUTURE OF PAKISTAN
Last month President Perevez Musharraf of Pakistan visited the European Parliament where he faced questions from MEPs at the Foreign Affairs Committee. Issues such as the assassination of Benizir Bhutto and the worrying deterioration in the Pakistani President’s respect for democratic and press freedoms formed the central part of what was a lively and frank exchange of views. The European Parliament remains committed to helping ensure that the country’s elections on 18 February meet the principles of freedom and fairness promised by Musharraf at the meeting. A delegation of MEPs will travel to Pakistan for the elections to take part in international election monitoring.

RULES ON THE USE OF ‘FRESH’ IN FOOD LABELLING TO BE TIGHTENED
At the last session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg I raised the concern that ‘fresh’ chicken may not be just as fresh as consumers might think. Labels proclaiming “fresh chicken” should mean just that, and it is worrying that at present this may not be the case. As they exist, European Union (EU) rules give no time limit for the use of ‘fresh’ on poultry. Chicken must not be frozen, thawed and sold as ‘fresh’ but this does not prevent meat that has travelled for weeks from being put in supermarket chiller units as if it were from a bird just slaughtered. In response to my question the European Commission has promised to come forward with a new definition of ‘fresh’ for labelling meat products. The question was stimulated by the excellent ‘Look Behind the Meat Label’ campaign by the union Unite who discovered that thousands of tonnes of ‘fresh’ poultry meat sold in supermarkets and catering outlets is imported and often months old. Unite discovered that 80% of chicken sandwiches sold by supermarkets were made from imported meat. Britain is the biggest importer of Thai poultry in Europe, buying 83,000 tonnes of Thai chicken meat out of the 127,000 tonnes imported into the EU. In 2006 Britain also imported 3,500 tonnes of chicken worth £46 million and 232 tonnes of turkey worth £329,000 from Brazil.

LISTON TREATY WOULD BOOST CHILDREN’S RIGHTS THROUGHOUT EU
It is a sad fact of modern society that an increasing number of risks to children transcend national borders. Cross-border co-operation is essential to the protection of children from child trafficking and online exploitation. This is why, at the last session of the European Parliament at Strasbourg, MEPs debated the ‘EU Strategy on the Rights of the Child’. Amongst the measures that were supported were:

• an end to sexual exploitation of children by ensuring that sex tourism is covered by extraterritorial laws;
• protecting children from known sex offenders through exchanging criminal record information across EU member states;
• an early warning system on child abductions, including a free-phone line;
• combating the dissemination of paedophilic material via the internet;

TOUGHER STANDARDS ON TOY SAFETY
The European Parliament is considering proposals to update the 20-year-old Toy Safety Directive. We are now living in a global market in which 90% of the toys imported into the EU come from China where safety standards are not as high as we would expect them to be here. In September of last year the toy company Mattel had to recall a total of £20m worth of toys in two months because of safety fears. Under the new Directive there will be tougher rules for enforcement bodies and measures to protect children from suffocating and choking as well as a ban on toys embedded in food or sweets. MEPs have emphasised that the Toy Safety Directive must stand the test of time and meet demands that all toys on sale in the EU are made to the highest standards.

NEW THINKING ON TRADE POLICY AND DEVELOPMENT
I was pleased to be asked to contribute to a new Socialist Group Pamphlet entitled: New Thinking on Trade Policy and Development - Trade and Climate Change. My contribution is entitled ‘Trading Green’. You can read the pamphlet by going to: http://www.socialistgroup.org/gpes/publist.do?lg=en

STRASBOURG ROUNDUP
If you find this European Report useful you might also like to read my monthly Strasbourg Roundup, which you can access by visiting my revamped web page on www.martinmep.com, also for Labour Party members accessible via their Members Net.