| European News Send us your European News |  |
Wednesday, 03 March 2010 Consumers should act now on new mobile phone rights Local Euro-MP Peter Skinner is calling on people in his South East Constituency to take control of their mobile phone bill after new EU rules came into force this week. Consumers now have additional rights to help them avoid the shock of a massive bill when they return from trips abroad. Rules introduced this week give people new powers to control how much they spend on accessing the internet with their mobile when travelling in other EU countries. They will benefit both holiday makers and business people who use mobile devices to access their email or websites. The cost of downloading data over mobile networks can be hugely expensive and many customers return from their holidays to face unexpectedly high bills. In some cases customers have racked up thousands of pounds in charges without being aware of the costs. The new rules mean people can now set a limit on how much they are willing to spend on mobile internet while they’re abroad. They will be warned if they approach that limit and it will be impossible to go beyond it without agreement by the customer. Skinner said: “These changes don’t just affect tech-savvy teenagers. Most new phones now include email as standard and sites such as Facebook are increasingly important for staying in touch. “The cost of mobile internet access abroad can also be a nasty shock for businesses whose staff use their phone to stay on top of their email while travelling abroad. “These rules will give customers the ability to take greater control of their bills.” The changes were agreed by the European institutions last year and this element of the regulations came into force on Monday (1 March). The package has already led to cheaper text messages and voice calls for people travelling to other EU countries. MEPs return to Brussels for a week of meetings in committee from 15-18 March.
Highlights include:
• Security of gas supply - 1st reading Regulation - vote in Industry Committee (Thursday)
• Food labelling - 1st reading Directive - vote in Environment Committee (Tuesday)
• Organ transplants (safety and quality) - 1st reading Directive - vote in Environment and Public Health Committee (Tuesday)
• Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive - discussion of amendments - Economic Committee (Wednesday)
• Working Time Directive (lorry drivers) - discussion of amendments - Employment Committee (Wednesday)
Among issues being led by UK MEPs:
• North West Labour MEP Arlene McCarthy - draft report on Capital Requirements Directive/Bank bonuses - Economic Committee (Wednesday)
• South East Lib Dem MEP Sharon Bowles chairs meeting with national parliaments on global financial architecture - Economic Committee (Tuesday-Wednesday)
• South East Conservative MEP Richard Ashworth - adoption report on CAP simplification - Agriculture Committee (Tuesday)
• North West Lib Dem MEP Chris Davies - oral question on End-of-Life-Vehicles Directive - Environment Committee (Monday)
• Scottish Lib Dem MEP George Lyon introduces hearing on future of CAP - Agriculture Committee (Wednesday)
Public Hearings with UK experts/evidence
• Peter Kendall of National Farmers Union speaks on future of CAP - Agriculture Committee (Wednesday)
• Prof. Francis Jacobs of King's College, London, speaks on European Convention on Human Rights - Constitutional Affairs Committee (Thursday)
• Fadi Hakura of Chatham House, London speaks on relations with Turkey - International Trade Committee (Tuesday)
• Lt General David Leakey - Director General of EU military staff exchange of views with SubCommittee on Security & Defence (Wednesday)
Other public hearings
• Banking sector - cross-border crisis management - Economic Committee (Tuesday)
• Prevention of mass human rights abuses/atrocities - SubCommittee on Human Rights (Thursday)
• Youth in the EU - Employment Committee (Wednesday)
• Violence against women - Women's Rights Committee (Tuesday)
• Fisheries - conservation and fleet management - Fisheries Committee (Tuesday)
• EEA-Switzerland - Internal Market Committee - chaired by West Midlands Conservative MEP Malcolm Harbour (Thursday)
• European economic governance - tools for economic & social recovery - Crisis Committee (Thursday)
Latest news
Highlights from this week in Strasbourg
• Pet passports: 18-month extension to current UK regime
• Key debate on consumer policy
• Baroness Ashton appears before MEPs
Pet passports: 18-month extension to current UK regime
MEPs today adopted an extension to the UK's current pet passport rules, which allows for special health checks to prevent the spread of rabies, tapeworm and ticks. Ireland, Malta, Finland and Sweden will also be able to maintain temporary national measures until December 2011, but after this date a new regime will apply EU-wide.
The pet passport rules have been in place since 2003 and allow people to take their cats, dogs and pet ferrets with them to other EU Member States. Today's vote was overwhelming (618 votes to 17, with 5 abstentions) and was necessary so that the current scheme could continue beyond its expiry date of June 2010.
Below are extracts from Monday's debate in Strasbourg (European Commission + UK MEPs - nb: the rapporteur, Sinn Fein MEP Bairbre de Brún spoke in Irish and we do not yet have an English version of the speech).
John Dalli, Member of the Commission – Before a vote is taken on the compromise text, I am pleased to confirm that the Commission does not intend to propose a further prolongation of the transitional regime, which will come to an end on 31 December 2011. This means that fully harmonised rules will be in place from 1 January 2012. However, the Commission does intend to propose a revision of the regulation in its entirety before 30 June 2011 and, in particular, the aspects of delegated and implementing acts.
Linda McAvan MEP (Labour, Yorkshire & Humber) – It is an important piece of legislation for lots of citizens, being about moving their pet freely around the EU. When we first adopted this legislation a few years ago there was a lot of support for it, but we have this transitional period...which is important to prevent diseases spreading to states that do not have those diseases.
I welcome the Commission’s support for extending the transitional period so that, when we do have the new legislation, all countries will have the same legislation. We will by that point have much higher levels of animal health and animal welfare across the EU.
Jim Nicholson MEP (UUP, Northern Ireland) – In my opinion this is a small but vital piece of legislation which will protect those areas and those countries that are concerned by the threat of rabies; the disease continues to occur in some parts of the EU, and hopefully by the end of 2011 vaccination programmes will have proved successful in eradicating the disease once and for all.
Until then, however, we have found a way which allows us to continue to enforce our own stricter requirements under the transitional period before we move, in line with other EU Member States, to the general regime.
Chris Davies MEP (LibDem, North West) – Mr President, I just wanted to say a few words in praise of the legislation we have. I understand it was based upon the United Kingdom’s pet travel scheme, which was introduced about a decade ago. That helped us reduce dramatically the quarantine regulations we had in our country which had caused much distress to both pets and their owners...Hundreds of thousands of animals now travel with their owners each year across Europe.
The reality is that rabies has been kept very firmly under control – 2 700 cases 20 years ago down to less than 300 cases last year, and not one single case associated with the movement of domestic animals under this scheme.
When this legislation was first discussed, many ferret owners in the United Kingdom came to me and asked why this legislation could not include their animals too. They wanted to take them to ferret exhibitions across Europe...Eventually we decided that the incidence of rabies in domestic ferrets was so small that we could include them, but apparently, I am told, there have been relatively few movements.
I can now look to my constituents and, when they ask me what the European Union has done for them, I can say that we have made it possible for you to take your pet on holiday – your cat, your dog or your ferret.
Stuart Agnew MEP (UKIP, Eastern) – Mr President, I understand that the original idea for the creation of pet passports came from the Official Monster Raving Loony Party in the UK, which probably best sums up this dangerous scheme.
I understand there is no standardisation of enforcement of the scheme. Some countries require the formal passport while others will take documentation in any form; still others will not accept the passport as proof of vaccination. Many airlines are unable to provide details of the formal procedures and staff are poorly trained.
Key debate on consumer policy
Extracts from Tuesday morning's debate on consumer policy
Malcolm Harbour MEP (Conservative, West Midlands) – Mr President, as chairman of the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection, it gives me great pleasure first of all to say how much we all appreciate the fact that Commissioner Barnier and Commissioner Dalli are both here today, as a number of my colleagues have observed, and secondly also to remark that I think this is a remarkable occasion for Parliament.
We have one committee that has put together three own-initiative reports focusing on monitoring and implementation of key legislative instruments and, as you, Commissioner Barnier, have said, part of your success will be judged not just in the number of legislative proposals you bring forward but how well they are working.
I think it is significant – if we look at the EU 2020 proposal – that the completion of the single market is now relegated to a paragraph that says missing links and completing networks. Well I hope all my colleagues agree this is absolutely not acceptable.
Trevor Colman MEP (UKIP, South West) – One of the main recommendations is the establishing of a Consumer Markets Scoreboard concerning topics such as complaints, prices, satisfaction, switching and safety, plus a whole host of additional long-term indicators. The Commission intends to carry out in-depth analysis of all so-called problematic sectors identified in the Consumer Markets Scoreboard.
This bureaucratic web of interconnecting enforcements and self-perpetuating regulation will do for the small-business retail trade in Britain what the common fisheries policy has done for the British fishing industry: it will kill it.
Catherine Stihler MEP (Labour, Scotland) – SOLVIT is a great concept and I think Commissioner Dalli summed it up by saying it is all about people. It is citizen-centred, and it tries to help those who come up against barriers and problems created by the EU and to solve the problem in 10 weeks.
I would like to put on record and pay tribute to all those who work in Member State SOLVIT centres. Just last year I met with the small-staffed team who run the SOLVIT centre in the United Kingdom. The way the SOLVIT centre works in the UK is a model of best practice because it tries and uses a SOLVIT+ model, going further in helping businesses and individuals who contact them with a problem. The team are integrated into the European Regulatory Division within the Department for Business and Industry...
In conclusion, why is there not a SOLVIT day in the European Parliament? Why do we not have a poster in all our constituency office windows advertising SOLVIT?
Baroness Ashton before MEPs on EU Foreign & Security Policy
The following UK MEPs spoke in Wednesday morning's debate:
Charles Tannock (Conservative, London); Andrew Duff (LibDem, Eastern), Geoffrey Van Orden (Conservative, Eastern), Paul Nuttall (UKIP, North West), Richard Howitt (Labour, Eastern), Struan Stevenson (Conservative, Scotland), Andrew Brons (BNP, Yorkshire & Humber)
| |
