Autumn Letter from Bill Newton Dunn MEP

2.47.19pm GMT Tue 16th Dec 2008

News from the European Parliament from Bill Newton Dunn your local MEP

Here's my October report

The world's financial crisis:

The parliament this week asked for new EU proposals to regulate financial institutions more tightly. As French president Sarkosy said in the debate, 'I don not understand how a financial business can be rated AAA on a Friday, but only BBB by Monday morning.' The rating agencies were not doing their job properly. They could not be regulated previously because Gordon Brown had always vetoed that, wishing to protect the City of London. The same man who as Chancellor promised British voters 'No more Tory boom and bust.'

After the USA tried separate measures for helping their banks, and certain EU states (Ireland, Greece) tried their own solutions but found the problem was too big for them, the Euro-Zone leaders came together to create an EU solution, recognising that working together is more effective than apart.

Time Share

A new EU law was voted through this week to protect consumers across the EU.

The parliament has four online channels at http://europarity.europa.eu/StartPage.aspx

ITV have just opened a new web-link at http://www.itvlocal.com/central/myeurope/east/

Ratification of the Lisbon Treaty:

Of the EU's 27 member states, 24 have now ratified. The Czech Republic and Sweden are both scheduled to ratify next month, which only leaves Ireland. A German newspaper came up with a nice idea: Ireland leaves the EU, the Treaty thus comes into effect, and Ireland holds a referendum on whether to rejoin the EU.

Irish MEPs say nothing has yet been decided by Dublin but the most likely outcome seems to be a second referendum in the autumn of 2009 ('after all, candidates are allowed to stand for election a second time even if they lose the first time')

The 'hit man' email

There is a very unpleasant new threatening email scam. Your personally identifiable information is included in the email to promote the appearance that the sender actually knows you and your location. For more details, see http://www.ic3.gov/media/2007/070109.aspx There are several versions one says that one of your loved ones will be kidnapped another tells you that the sender has been hired to kill you. You are given a 30 minute time limit. Report the email immediately as a scam and delete it.

Facts which have recently amazed me about the internet

A Google person in Brussels says there are now one trillion web-pages around the world, and 23 billion new pages are being added each day!

An Intel person says that Moore's Law is speeding up. The law used to say that the power of microchips doubles every eighteen months: now it is happening even faster. Their next microchip will contain two billion transistors.

A speaker in the parliament from the SETI foundation in California said that they will detect signals from ET within 24 years! Because by then, the power of microchips will be so strong that SETI telescopes will be able to monitor signals from all parts of the sky simultaneously!

All the best

Bill