Conservative South West MEP Giles Chichester was today elected by acclamation as a Vice-President of the European Parliament and said his appointment gives “prestige and status [to the region] in a way that we haven’t had for many years now”. His nomination was unopposed.

Mr Chichester, who was first elected to Parliament in 1994, replaces the ALDE member Silvana Koch-Mehrin who resigned her position as Vice-President following accusations she plagiarised her university thesis.

“I’m absolutely delighted – it’s very nice to be elected by acclaim and I’ve very proud to become a Vice-President of a significant office within the Parliament,” he told radioep.com shortly after the announcement today in Strasbourg.

“I’d like to think it gives prestige and status to us [South West] in a way that we haven’t had for some time now. There hasn’t been a Vice President from the South West since I’ve been in the Parliament – which is rather a long time now – but in material terms I’m not sure I can say exactly how it might benefit the South West but I shall look for opportunities to do so.”

“[This appointment] gives you more status and perhaps this will get me quicker answers from the Commission for my constituents’ concerns,” he pondered. “No, maybe not. The Commission won’t change.”

“I nurture a hope to run the votes in the Chamber, to do it on time and keep my colleagues happy as a result”, he confessed, “but I’m at the bottom of the hierarchy of Vice-Presidents so I’m not sure if I’ll get the chance.”

Mr Chichester is expected to assume the responsibilities his predecessor Ms Koch-Mehrin, who as Vice-President served as an ex officio panel member of the Parliament's own Science and Technology Options Assessment unit (STOA) and was charged with liaising with national parliaments on behalf of the European Parliament.

There are currently 14 vice-presidency positions, four of which are now occupied by British MEPs. In the past it was usual for agreements to be struck between the groups when dividing up the posts which saw candidates elected without formal opposition. But this time it threatened to be different following the actions of Edward McMillan-Scott, another Vice-President who was selected as an ECR member but later crossed the floor to the ALDE group mid-mandate. Some reports suggested ALDE would consider fielding another candidate, but they appear to have decided against doing so allowing the ECR’s Chichester to be elected unopposed.

The Greek Socialist MEP Anni Podimata was also nominated unopposed to replace Stavros Lambrinidis, who has left the Parliament to become foreign minister of Greece.

(Quotes from audio produced by Quadrant for UK radio stations used with kind permission.)

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In this week’s edition of the BBC’s The Record Europe, UK MEPs Sir Graham Watson and Nigel Farage clashed over the European Commission’s proposal to introduce a tax on financial transactions (FTT) to raise money to finance the EU budget.

Once previously ruled out by the European Commission, South West MEP Sir Graham noted “there many of us were sceptical of the idea [of an FTT] when it was first launched but the more we look at it have begun to think this might not be a bad way of doing things”. Alluding to the five to eight months of “horse-trading” that goes on every five years between countries over who pays what to the budget, he said “if we are able to identify a tax that raises about the amount of money you need to run the thing, then why not go for it?”.

But UKIP leader Nigel Farage was quick to retort such suggestions, reminding that this is “the first occasion the EU is moving towards direct taxation” and that “they [Commission] want to raise money which is the basic function of the state”, before whipping out the nationalist card saying “there are many here in this place that hate Britain, hate the Anglo-Saxon culture, and those who openly say they want to attack the Anglo-Saxon culture and would love to see London hurt”.

The German MEP and co-head of the Green group Rebecca Harms was also part of the roundtable debate which can be seen in the video from 02:35 by clicking here or on the image above (viewable from Europe).

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Corruption in sport benefits the few to the detriment of many, gives it a bad name and leaves a bitter taste in the mouth. Examples are being more numerous and high-profile: in 2010 the cricket world was stunned when the News of the World exposed a £150,000 scam involving members of the Pakistani cricket team. Then just four weeks ago in Zurich, amongst widespread allegations of vast corruption within FIFA, Sepp Blatter, left, was again re-elected head of football’s global governing body - the sole candidate in an election widely branded as a total farce. The reputation of the governing body has been left tarnished and its credibility battered.

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For the first time since joining the European Union in 2004, Poland have assumed the six-month rotating presidency which is likely to be a difficult one at a difficult time for the 27-member bloc.

The Poles take over from the Hungarians, who rounded off their successful six month stint in typically dramatic fashion sealing a late political deal on Croatia’s eventual succession to full EU member in a last mini-summit yesterday evening. The task of translating that agreement into an accession treaty now begins before it then can be signed and ratified by the existing 27 EU members – as well as the Croats in a referendum – a process that should be completed in time for the target entry date of 1st July 2013.

After the official handover of the EU flag conducted in Warsaw this afternoon, Poland’s PM Donald Tusk delivered an encouragingly optimistic speech in which he passionately defended the EU, without mentioning names criticised the “egoistic national interests” and accused current European leaders of hypocrisy and myopia.

Then, rounding on the leaders of the big-four (Germany, France, Italy and Britain) over their handling of the crisis in Greece, immigration, EU spending and the budget, he charged them with posing as European champions while pandering to a new form of euroscepticism for personal political gain. These were strong words and an encouraging statement of intent.

Mr Tusk said he would use his country’s six-month presidency to try to restore some sense of common purpose and confidence to a 27-member bloc in what is very troubling times, but his presidency will fall victim to the summer vacation that falls at the start of their term. He will therefore be under pressure to get results in the final four months of the year, not least successfully negotiate his own challenges at home with national elections penned for October.

Powodzenia Polska!

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