BRUSSELS WATCH

Are Europe’s Railways Failing The Commuter?

It has taken since 1994 for Britain to complete the long promised high speed rail line linking London's Saint Pancras station with the Channel Tunnel. On 14 November London will be directly connected to the rest of Europe’s by a high speed rail network. No doubt it will be another 20 years before Britain considers building a high speed rail network to link London with the rest of the British Isles. Instead, passengers in the rest of Britain will be lucky to experience speeds little better than in the steam age.

Britain in Afghanistan -The Battle for Helmand Province

British Forces and their European Allies in Southern Afghanistan’s, Helmand Province, are part of NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). As of September 2007, the number of UK troops has risen to 7,700 troops. The security situation in Helmand is fragile and military forces have suffered casualties when fighting Al-Qaeda terrorists and their allies. Troops have experienced the most intense fighting since the Korean War. The ISAF mission is often described as a police action to establish security and deny the Taliban and Al Qaeda the environment in which to operate.

Nabucco – An Energy Security Pipedream?

The European Union currently imports 44% of its natural gas, with Russia, Norway and North Africa as its main suppliers. Europe is linked by natural gas pipelines to gas fields in neighbouring non EU states, though some gas is transported by Liquid Natural Gas tankers from the Middle East, West Africa and the Caribbean. At present, Russia is the most important supplier of gas to Europe, supplying 41% of EU’s natural gas imports, representing 19% of Europe’s total gas consumption, and this is expected to increase. Gas imports are expected to gradually grow, due to a gradual decline in EU domestic gas production and ever growing European gas demand.

TGV EST European - Nimby’s Add to Delays and Costs

Hubert du Mesnil, president of RFF, the company that built the line, noted. “Enough steel was used in the rails to build 8 Eiffel Towers“ He added that 64 million cubic metres of earth had been removed since the start of construction in 2002. That is nine times the volume of material extracted to build the Channel Tunnel, linking France to the UK.

SHOULD EUROPE , TAKE SERIOUSLY, TALK OF CREATING A GAS PRODUCING OPEC?

At a time when gas exporting countries are considering the formation of an OPEC type gas producer’s cartel, EU President Barrosso has argued the case for a united European energy strategy in order to improve and maintain a more favourable bargaining position. In an interview with energy expert Jonathan Stern of Oxford University’s Institute of Energy Studies, he argues that such a strategy is necessary, but, doubts, given the very differences that exist with gas production, distribution and marketing, that the formulation of an OPEC type organisation is ‘almost certainly not viable’

Britain's Continues Record of Bad EU Record Keeping of Payments 18 November 2007

Nicholas Newman 18 November 2007

After Agriculture the second biggest slice of the EU budget is regional development funding (32.4bn euros in 2006). The latest report from the EU Auditors says that there has been 'little improvement' in Britain's record keeping. The EU Court of Auditors estimates that at least 12% of the total paid out was affected by errors, and complains of poor control by member states.

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European Court of Auditors 2006 annual report [2.7MB]

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The commission says it suspended 1.7bn euros (£1.2bn) in structural payments to the UK in April 2007 although that figure has now fallen to 326m euros (£229m).

In response to the report, the Vice-President of the European Commission, Siim Kallas, says he's "glad to see the Court now gives its green light to over 40% of total payments".

He points out that around a third of the budget was approved last year and only 6% three years ago.

POLITICIANS PLAYING TRAINS?

That TGV, ICE, Eurostar, and AVE you see whistling past you at 300 kph, is certainly an amazing sight, and something of which, we Europeans should be proud. However, many a passenger will not realise the major political battles, which have taken place in political and national forums to achieve such examples of creating a modern continental rail network.

Politicians and lobbyists have been fighting over this policy in the European Commission and Parliament. The main question, they have been discussing, is to what extent, if, any, the private sector should be allowed to participate in achieving Europe’s goals of creating a competitive railway system fit for the twenty first century.

The result of these battles has been the defeat of the traditional statist left and the victory of the free market centrists. The Left have used arguments such as national interest, tradition and culture to prevent change and have not accepted that traditional left solutions have largely failed our railways and only managed to delay modernisation, not prevent it.

A good example of this is the new high speed rail route being developed between Paris and Germany, known as TGV Est., whose first phase will start commercial operations on 10^th June. When this project was first proposed, it was not countenanced that the private sector would be permitted to participate. Since then, the private sector, through its industrial associations, has become an active participant in the construction, maintenance, design of TGV Est. Private sector companies like Arriva will by 2010 be able to operate their own train services along this line, in direct competition with state owned operators DB and SNCF.