MEPs take up arms against US plans to charge EU visitors 'security and tourism' fee

STRASBOURG NOTEBOOK:EUROPEAN LEADERS have been warned to stop being "paper tigers" in a growing row about controversial plans by the US to charge EU citizens a $14 (€10) security and tourism fee when they visit.

MEPs showed their anger this week in the European Parliament that the EU was being so “nice” to the American administration about what they believed was a new form of visa by the US, which has a reciprocal visa waiver agreement with 23 of the 27 member states.

German MEP Elmar Brok of the European People’s Party expressed his “astonishment” at what he also described as a “really unique business model,” the US was adopting.

He fumed that “we are so nice that we are making our citizens’ data available to the US and on top of that we have to pay a fee and those fees are going to be used to promote advertising for the US tourist industry”.

In 2009, for security, the US introduced an electronic pre-clearance system for visitors – Electronic System for Travel Authorisation (Esta) – which requires personal data.

The US has established a new tourism agency and the $4 to be levied for the Esta security system would be added to a $10 fee because of a new tourism law.

The US will encourage tourism through advertising paid for by the $10 fee each visitor will be charged.

“They’re getting the consumers to pay directly for advertising,” Mr Brok fumed. “It makes us look like paper tigers.”

Ministers and the commission are involved in a tortuous process to establish whether according to EU treaties this is tantamount to a new visa.

Mr Brok suggested that “maybe it would be reasonable if you mention reciprocity”.

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In a week when another female TD announced she was standing down, highlighting yet again the gender imbalance in Irish parliamentary politics, it is striking to note the proportion of female MEPs in the European parliament of 736 members.

The women, of all ages, make up 35 per cent of the total – a 4 per cent increase since the last election.

The Irish numbers in Europe don’t look quite so bad as the 23 TDs out of 166 or 13 per cent in the Dáil.

There are 12 MEPs so Marian Harkin (Ind, North-West) Mairéad McGuinness (FG, Ireland East) and Nessa Childers (Labour, Ireland East) make up 25 per cent.

And there was a bit of added excitement when one MEP voted with her six-week-old daughter in a sling in her arms.

Licia Ronzulli a member of Silvio Berlusconi’s People of Freedom movement said she hoped other women would be able to follow in her footsteps.

It probably helped that her daughter Vittoria slumbered peacefully through the entire event.

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There may have been some banter in Strasbourg about starting young but the fact is that the youngest “registered” MEP in the parliament in a mere 26 years old while the oldest is a venerable 82.

From Denmark, Emilie Turunen from the Greens/ Europe Free Alliance was born in May 1984 while Italian Luigi Ciriaco de Mita from the European People’s Party, of which Fine Gael is a member, was born in 1928. Not for MEPs or indeed TDs, any statutory pension age.

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A decision taken by the European Parliament this week would make criminals of “80 per cent of young people in Ireland”, according to one MEP. In the fight against online piracy, the parliament voted by 328 to 245 in favour of a report recommending that individual as well as commercial illegal download should be prosecuted. Alan Kelly (Labour, Ireland South) said the only sensible way to deal with this issue was to criminalise and target the mass producers of illegal copyright material.