What does the Earl of Dartmouth know about the EU?

The latest blog entry in the series asked 'What does the EU want from Liechtenstein?' (25 December 2010).

Now we may ask what the Earl of Dartmouth knows about the EU.

On 14 December 2010 William (The Earl of) Dartmouth, member of the European Parliament (MEP), presented a question for a written answer to the Commission (E-010415/2010):

Does the EU have a trade agreement or agreements with Liechtenstein? If so, what is/are the principal terms?

Trade

In the context of the European Union and its common commercial policy, trade is usually understood as relations with third countries. (Cf. Articles 206-207 TFEU)


Liechtenstein

However, Liechtenstein has joined the internal market through the European Economic Area (EEA) together with Iceland and Norway.

In addition to my series of blog posts, the EU relations with Liechtenstein are outlined in the recent GAC conclusions:

Council conclusions on EU relations with EFTA countries; 3060th GENERAL AFFAIRS Council meeting Brussels, 14 December 2010


INTA

The Committee on International Trade (INTA) of the European Parliament is presented as responsible for:

matters relating to the establishment and implementation of the Union's common commercial policy and its external economic relations, in particular:

1.    financial, economic and trade relations with third countries and regional organisations;

2.    measures of technical harmonisation or standardisation in fields covered by instruments of international law;

3.    relations with the relevant international organisations and with organisations promoting regional economic and commercial integration outside the Union;

4.    relations with the WTO, including its parliamentary dimension.
 
The committee liaises with the relevant interparliamentary and ad hoc delegations for the economic and trade aspects of relations with third countries.

The Earl of Dartmouth

William (The Earl of) Dartmouth is a member of the EP Committee on International Trade, where he represents the Europe of Freedom and Democracy (EFD) group, an assortment of nine nationalist parties. He was elected an MEP as a candidate for the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP).


The question

I would expect MEPs in general and members of the expert Committee on International Trade in particular to know that Liechtenstein has joined the internal market through the EEA (in 1994).

I would not employ the term 'trade' regarding Liechtenstein in the way we do when speaking about economic relations with third countries (outside the single market).

The international agreements between the European Union and any country are just a few mouseclicks away at the Treaties Office database.

Therefore the parliamentary question about one or more EU trade agreements with Liechtenstein makes me wonder if it is is based on ignorance or laziness, or if there are profound reasons for such a query I have failed to understand.

I hope that William (The Earl of) Dartmouth would be kind enough to explain how his parliamentary question makes sense.



Ralf Grahn

P.S. What a sad Christmas AFP reports from Minsk: Belarussian police launched sweeping raids on opposition homes and offices as part of its crackdown on protests following Alexander Lukashenko's reelection, rights groups said.

European Parliament: ECR & EFD groups online

About two weeks ago, we remarked on the lack of web existence for the two right wing nationalist groups in the European Parliament: the European Conservatives and Reformists Group (ECR) and the Europe of Freedom and Democracy Group (EFD).



We then returned to the anti-EU ECR and the Europhobe EFD a few days later, but both political groups were still leading a nonline existence. There were still no traces of the ECR on 2 October 2009.

There have now been improvements.

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Europe of Freedom and Democracy Group (EFD)



The Europe of Freedom and Democracy Group (EDF) has now managed to produce a web site under construction, with a link to a list of its 32 members and what should have been a link to its political platform (but it did not work).

There was nothing about the activities and initiatives of the EDF.

The link from the box with Political groups on the European Parliament’s web site still does not work.

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European Conservatives and Reformists Group (ECR)



The European Conservatives and Reformists Group (ECR) has now produced a professional web site.

The contents are still slim, but approaching those of the other political groups in the European Parliament.

The link from the European Parliament’s main page does work.

The ECR pages exist only in English, whereas the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) offers a wide selection of languages, and the centre-left S&D group and the liberal ALDE have a selection of the most widely spoken languages.

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Three months after the political groups were established, they have made their appearance on the web, although the presence of the EFD Group is almost theoretical and the profile of the ECR Group is monolingual.

The undoubted residual attraction of the 19th and 20th century main ideology, nationalism, should encourage further presentational improvements.

The groups have a total of 86 members, almost 12 per cent of the seats in the European Parliament (736), so there is surely wider European interest in what they are doing.

The EDF and the ECR should not let matters rest there.

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EP political groups



By the way, here is a link to the overview web page of the European Parliament on the political groups. (It is undated, and instead of the “7th parliamentary term”, the editors could have used years, which every reader understands.)



Ralf Grahn

Where are the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR)?

In a blog post Wednesday 30 September 2009 I noted that the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) political group in the European Parliament seems to have no web site accessible from the EP’s start page, almost four months after the European elections.



Jon Worth has turned up with the same result with regard to the ECR Group (2 October 2009) after some web search of his own.

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As I noted, the same lack of existence haunts the political group of Europe of Freedom and Democracy (EFD).

I checked again on the EP’s home page a few moments ago. Neither the ECR nor the EFD link leads anywhere.

These anti-EU and Europhobe groups have had time and they have enough resources to produce at least some web presence in the European Parliament, so the reasons must lie elsewhere.

Are they that incompetent?

Are their hard nationalistic platforms mutually exclusive?

Are they convinced of their irrelevance in European politics?

Do they find their supporters that undeserving of communications about their efforts in the European Union?


Their ideas may belong in the XIX century, but does it have to comprise their web presence?


Ralf Grahn

European Parliament political groups

The opening page of the European Parliament has a handy box with access to the political groups.

According to size, you find the centre-right EPP Group (European People’s Party), the centre-left S&D (Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats), ALDE (Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe), the Greens/EFA (Greens and European Free Alliance) – all with updated information.



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We then proceed to the ECR (European Conservatives and Reformists). The link for the anti-EU right leads nowhere.


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The leftist GUE/NGL (European United Left – Nordic Green Left) features functioning web pages with news and information.



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The link to the europhobe EFD (Europe of Freedom and Democracy) group leads nowhere.


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The European Parliament was elected in June 2009, but the nationalistic parties on the right have been unable or unwilling to assemble working web pages with information to the public.


Ralf Grahn