David Martin's EU Tribune

Just prior to the 2010 general election, the UK Labour Government passed a ground-breaking law to clip the wings of predatory Vulture Funds. The UK law enforces internationally agreed relief for the most impoverished countries. Unfortunately, due to a technicality, this law did not apply to Jresey.

Vulture capitalists run Vulture Funds to make profit out of debt. Vulture capitalists make a killing and feed off of other people’s misery. The UK brought in a law to stop Vulture Funds using British courts to prey on the hardship of developing countries. However this law doesn’t yet apply to Jersey.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo should be one of Africa’s richest countries however it has suffered from decades of ravaging civil war. It has a mineral wealth estimated to be around $24 trillion (£15tn). There are huge deposits of cobalt, diamonds, gold, copper, oil and 80% of the world’s supplies of coltan ore – a valuable mineral used in computers and mobile phones.

Yet 100 women a week are still dying in childbirth and 16,000 children under the age of five die every year. One in three children in the DRC will never get anything more than primary education.
One of the reasons the country has been unable to recover is that it is being pursued by international debt speculators, known as Vulture Capitalists through offshore tax havens such as Jersey, for debts that were run up during 30 years of war and civil war.

Vulture funds operate by buying up a country’s debt when it is in a state of chaos. When the country has stabilised, Vulture Funds return to demand millions of dollars in interest repayments and fees on the original debt.

Right now, the Vulture Fund FG Hemisphere is using Jersey’s courts to claim $100m from the Democratic Republic of Congo. They bought this debt for just $3.3m.  Jersey’s new Chief Minister shouldn’t turn a blind eye to this; he should extend the UK’s anti-Vulture Funds law to Jersey.

The European Union should also follow the UK Labour Government’s example and introduce such a law to force creditors to take part in debt write-downs and stop the Vultures scavenging.

You can seethem,the Vultures are beginning to circle Greece and Ireland.

Strasbourg week has sting in tail

Looking ahead to business in Strasbourg this week it is heartening to hear that leading businesses from all over the world (including Sony and IKEA, M&S, BT, Unilever and Vodafone for example) support the Socialist Group policy to increase the European Union (EU) target from a 20% cut in emissions by 2020 to a 30% cut in emissions by 2020. It is somewhat ironic that the old target will virtually be met by the downturn in the EU economy.

We will also be discussing professional qualifications, or rather a register for coordinating a standard of qualifications from various different countries. This measure also proposes the setting up of an EU register for struck-off doctors so countries can co-ordinate their approach to hiring doctors from other countries. With reference to language capabilities, employers can (and should) already have language tests relevant to the job in question without significant input from mutually recognised qualified people from the EU. The GMC (the General Medical Council whose role includes ensuring doctors are qualified) support this EU legislation as it would give them the power to oversee doctors qualifications.

The European Parliament, like other Parliaments throughout the capitalist world are increasingly having to bring in legislation to curtail the abuses of banks and financial institutions. This month in Strasbourg we will be dealing with a proposal which would allow EU co-ordination on banning the ‘naked short selling’ of shares (selling share on without ever owning them) as the practice encourages casino-like speculation and it can cause shares to fall unnecessarily during crises. The EU is following Japan, Australia and Brazil in this – even the US now has tight restrictions on this ‘dodgy’ practice.

Talking of which, illegal fishing has become an important issue for EU citizens. Even the most hardened euro-sceptic has to accept the need for some form of international agreement to preserve dwindling fish stocks. Illegal fishing is a global problem. There has been much publicity and campaigning in the UK, from Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall and others, who rightly oppose a policy in the EU which encourages dead fish to be returned to the sea. The European Parliamentary Labour Party (EPLP) supports this campaign. In the long run, a managed international fishing policy will help our fishing industry, and we support technological solutions that help ensure fishermen do not catch fish that need preserving while they catch other fish that are more plentiful.

With regard to the sting in the tail, the EU and many other parts of the world has a serious bee problem which could have awful ecological effects. Socialist Group backs the Report being brought before the Strasbourg Parliament which supports research to halt the ever increasing decline of the bee population The EPLP would like more money to go on research into the complex problem of lack of bees (e.g. is it caused by agrichemicals).