His senior role meant he also visited and
led delegations of inquiry to such places as Macedonia,
Kosovo, Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina,
Slovenia and Lithuania before decisions were taken on
financing projects in these countries.
Prior to being President of the Committee
he was the majority leader (i.e. Co-ordinator) for his
political group for 5 years. Before that he had been
general Budget Rapporteur
(i.e. the Member responsible for setting out
Parliament’s position on the budget – the lead player)
for two budgets, the only person to have done this
twice.
In the Budgetary Control Committee he has
taken many reports through Parliament including four
General Budgets, normally a member only does one (once
again the only person to have done so) and in doing so
lay the foundation for handling the European Court of
Auditor’s Statement of Assurance when it was negative.
The last such report, voted in April
2005, has also laid the foundations for significant
changes in control procedures to attain a positive
statement of assurance on the EU budget.
His special interests include reform of
the Common Agricultural Policy, (and he was Chairman of
an all-party, cross nationality grouping of MEPS which
campaigns for agriculture reform)
and
Development Aid, where he had a specific interest in
South Africa and has written a Parliamentary Report on
funding of the EU Special Programme during the apartheid
years.
He strongly advocates the case for
Nuclear Power and Chaired the Forum for the Future of
Nuclear Energy within the European Parliament. He did
this as a qualified Marine Chief Engineer with a
knowledge of power generation and also as a strong
believer in protecting the environment for future
generations, especially from the effects if
CO2 . On this subject he has
been invited to speak at various European gatherings,
visited nuclear installations in the Czech Republic,
Lithuania, Sweden, South
Africa, been a keynote speaker at a Conference in
Tokyo and gave two Public Lectures in Auckland and
Dunedin on "Nuclear Energy For A Green Future . He also led a delegation to Bulgaria and was
instrumental in raising the issue of the
Kozloduy nuclear power plant
in the EU.
Added to all this,
he was Treasurer of the European Energy Forum.
Since Australia and New Zealand are part
of the Cairns Group, campaigning for agriculture reform
within the WTO, he was a vice-President of the
Parliamentary delegation to these countries. He had the
honour of being the inaugural speaker at the Jean Monet
lecture at the University of Christchurch, (followed the
next year by Prime Minister Helen Clarke). He has
addressed civil servants and politicians in
both Canberra and Wellington
as well as Pretoria and Cape town on European matters.
In March/April 2007 he was "European in Residence" for
the EU Centres Network of New Zealand, speaking at the
Universities of Auckland, Waikato, Wellington,
Christchurch and Otago. He was also a keynote speaker at
a series of events throughout New Zealand to mark the
50th anniversary of the signing of The Treaty of Rome.
He is an Adjunct Senior Fellow at the National Centre
For Research on Europe at the University of Canterbury.
In Europe he has spoken at various UK
Universities, the House of Lords Select Committee on
Europe, the University of Florence,
the OECD in Paris, the French Senate and to
Government Departments in 12 of the original 15 Member
States on EU Budgetary issues.
In 1994 he co-authored a booklet “A guide
to the Community Budget” published by the UK Local
Government International Bureau and has recently
published “The EU Budget – Public Perception and Fact”
which can be downloaded from EU Issues/EU Budget.
