David Martin, MEP

Strasbourg Round-up October 2011

Welcome to my Strasbourg Roundup. This is a very brief update to let you know what happened at the October plenary session of the European Parliament.

EU Budget
On Wednesday Parliament voted on next year's EU budget. Labour Party MEPs had opposed an increase to the budget on account of the difficult economic times we find ourselves in and had instead argued for a budget freeze. We argued that the budget should focus on developing jobs and economic growth and move away from wasteful export subsidies on which do not help in our efforts to tackle global poverty. We also found a range of savings which could be made in administration costs. While the EU budget plays an essential role in investing in the UK's poorest areas and stimulating jobs and growth across the UK and EU, we believed that role could continue on a frozen budget. Unfortunately Parliament did not find enough savings to freeze the budget and instead proposed an increase of 5.23%. I and my Labour colleagues voted against this package but it was passed. The 2012 budget is aimed at stimulating growth, employment and innovation. However, the vote which took place on Wednesday is not the final decision on the budget which will now need to be negotiated between MEPs and national governments in order to reach agreement. At a time when cuts to essential services are being implemented across the UK and hitting the poorest the hardest, EU investment is more important than ever to stimulate the economy. More information on EU investment in regeneration can be found here: http://www.the-eu-and-me.org.uk/

Eurozone Debt Deal
On Thursday morning MEPs received the news that a deal had been reached to save the Euro. The deal announced that Greece was going to have a 50% haircut to its debt, meaning that the private banks which hold their debt were asked to write off about 100 million Euros worth of it. Also concluded in the deal was the decision to raise the EFSF bail-out fund to 1 trillion Euros in an attempt to prevent fears of other Member States defaulting on their debt. European Commission President Barroso also stated that a Financial Transaction Tax was now expected following the Occupy actions around the world, a positive step in the campaign. The Socialist & Democrat leader Martin Schulz called for the swift introduction of the FTT and more action to be taken on tax avoidance.

Tough on Child Abuse
On Thursday the parliament approved a new directive aimed at tackling child sex abuse. The directive means that those who access images of child sex abuse will face strong punishments from the courts. There will be minimum penalties for around 20 criminal offences under the directive with tougher penalties being handed out to those who abuse children when in a position of trust. Those who coerce a child into sexual actions or prostitution will face a minimum sentence of 10 years, child pornography producers will face at least 3 years and viewers a minimum of 1 year. The directive also forces Member States to remove child porn websites or block them should it not be possible to remove them completely, as they may be hosted in a third country outside the EU. Online "grooming" and child sex tourism were also targeted in the directive, both of which will now become a criminal offence in the EU. Member States now have two years to convert this directive into national law.