My Personal Story: In and Out of EuropeThis book tells the story of Andrew Pearce MEP (Member of the European Parliament), who represented half a million people living in Merseyside and Cheshire at Strasbourg for ten years. It’s a human story, a down to earth account of what the daily job of an MEP is like. When Andrew applied to be a candidate in the first direct elections to the European Parliament in 1979, he could not have foreseen the places he would visit, the people he would meet and the actions he would be part of. Andrew had no knowledge that he’d be arrested ‘at gunpoint’ on a ferry on the Zambezi, bitten by a monkey in Sierra Leone and spend a night in a former Portuguese Army brothel in Angola. He expected to be debating with some of the big figures in European politics but could not know that they would include Barbara Castle, Ian Paisley, Pierre Pflimlin, Otto von Habsburg, French right wing leader Jean-Marie Le Pen and British European Commissioners including Leon Britain and Roy Jenkins. He could not have imagined the depths to which the British media would sink when reporting on the EU and the damage this would do to the British people’s understanding of its activities. He was similarly unprepared for the absence of effective means of co-operation between MEPs and Conservative colleagues in the House of Commons. My Personal Story – In and Out of Europe is the entertaining, informative and personal recollections on the daily life of one MEP. It is a fascinating read for anyone curious about the EU and Britain’s role within it. |
Contents
Engineering greater efficiency? Maybe | 8 |
A Eurocrat | 25 |
My Patch | 39 |
Appealing to those half a million voters | 46 |
Strasbourg and Brussels | 63 |
One thing after another | 73 |
All that foreignspeak | 91 |
Our Westminster allies | 110 |
EU money for my constituency | 162 |
Life in Brussels | 168 |
Joint Parliamentary oversight of aid and trade | 179 |
South Africa seeking a peaceful transition | 193 |
Whitehall Budapest and Toxteth | 229 |
Brussels yet again | 239 |
Ofcourse Im not antiEuropean but | 259 |
So what does British really mean? | 265 |
Handling the paperwork | 118 |
Brushes with British bureaucrats | 127 |
Listening to the voice of business | 149 |
the good the bad and the indifferent | 155 |
Those Continentals | 273 |
Time well spent? | 295 |
Acknowledgements | 303 |
Common terms and phrases
ACP countries airport arrived asked Barbara Castle became Belgian Birkenhead Blackpool Botswana Britain British British MEPs Brussels building campaign candidate Cheshire colleagues Commissioner committee conference Conservative constituency Council Customs debate delegates election Ellesmere Port English euro Euro-constituency Europe European Commission European Parliament fact former France French funds German Group hemicycle House of Commons Ian Paisley important interview invited Ireland Irish Italian Iwas Iwent journalists Labour lady language later lived Liverpool lobby London matters meeting MEPs Merseyside Minister Myra o’clock organisations parliamentary party Pearce political problem production retail seat shops sometimes South Africa Soviet staff Strasbourg street television Thatcher told took Tory tourists town Toxteth riots trade train Union vote wanted West West Kirby Whitehall Winnie Ewing Wirral