13/05/2016 Politics Europe

Now on BBC News, it's time for Politics Europe.

Hello and welcome to Politics Europe, your regular guide to the

top stories in Russells and Strasbourg. Our top stories call in

a yellow card over plans to give equal wages abroad in the EU. A

merger of the UK's major mobile networks has been blocked, but will

it mean a better deal for consumers? We find out exactly what MEPs in

Strasbourg think of the deal with Turkey. And we go to Portugal, to

look at how the country is struggling to recover from the

economic crisis. All that and more in the next

half-hour. Does this week, members of the European Parliament have met

in Strasbourg. What have they been getting up to and what else is

happening in Brussels? Here is our guide to the latest in Europe in 60

seconds. No doubt it was in your diary, who

could forget Europe Day? People came together to mark the annual

celebration of peace and unity. Even Nigel Farage. Not really. EU

ambassadors were dealing with the migrant crisis with the migrant

crisis with a controls for a maximum of six months. New laws apply to the

law enforcement agency to set up units to respond immediately to

terrorist threats. The trans- Atlantic trade deal could be

changed. Remember all that peace and Unity? It came under strain with 11

countries disagreeing with the commission over its choice to cancel

equal paperwork for Britain's overseas. For the next 30 minutes, I

am joined by UKIP NEP Thomas and Arnott and Labour MEP, Richard. The

decision by a group of East European governments has been to flash a

yellow card over the proposal to level wage differences between local

workers and those abroad within the EU. It is hard to make the yellow

cards stick? This is the third time it's happened. For those who say

there is no democracy in Europe, here it is. A red card would take it

one step further. On this issue, Labour wants action to stop

exploitation. We will carry on arguing the case. The very fact that

there is a democratic debate going on, one I believe we can win, it is

a very fundamental principle of equal pay for workers, whichever

country they are from. That is big protection for low paid workers in

Britain. I expect we can win it, but in a democratic fashion. That is

what European politics should be about. What do you say on the

ability of European parliaments to deal with what is going on in

Brussels? It is the third time it has happened in a number of years.

It's a difficult procedure to implement. It takes at least nine

countries, all within eight weeks, to get something through their

individual parliaments to be able to say to the commission, we want you

to think again. On one of those previous occasions when this

happens, the commission made it clear that it would go ahead with

that kind of thing anyway. You can see that in the European Parliament

time and time again. Is that likely to happen again? We will see. But we

do need to clamp down on tax evasion, corruption, and Europe

needs to have more teeth. You've changed your tactic. Voting to crack

down on tax havens, voting against that... ? Nobody is saying that. We

are saying we should do that at Westminster as a British government,

it is not something that should be done at EU level. We were having a

discussion about the democratic issue. I pointed out that this is

not that democratic, but then we moved on to the issue instead of the

principal. We will see. We sank Jeremy Corbyn for raising the issue

in the first place. Moving on. The ?10.3 billion deal to marry the O2

network and Three would reshape written's mobile phone market,

leaving just three major network operators. The EU Commission had

other ideas. -- Britain's. I am joined by our technology

correspondence. If this was a merger between two British companies,

largely affecting the British market, what is the provenance of

Russells in this kind of merger? Deals above a certain level get

referred to Brussels. There was another merger that was probably

even a bigger deal, but that stayed in Britain because everything about

it was happening in Britain. But the two companies are foreign. The

Spanish company that owned O2 wanted to get rid of it, and Three is owned

by Hutchison. They were both keen to have this case decided in Brussels

because they thought Brussels would be kinder to them than our

regulator. In the end, of common made its views very strongly known

in Brussels. They said they don't really want to go from four

operators to three. -- OfCom. Is not a case of this being approved by the

British authorities and being overruled by Brussels, this went to

Brussels and the British competition authorities are happy with the

result? Very happy. They seemed worried that Brussels was going to

let this through against their will. Big telecoms are upset about this,

they would rather that Europe looked at the market as a whole, how many

players there are in the market across Europe rather than just one

country. They feel there needs to be some consolidation. They should look

at my roaming charges if they want to make more money. What will the

companies do now? Is that it for the merger was it probably is, although

there is talk of an appeal. The company which owns O2 will look for

another partner. There is talk of a virgin's owner coming in to the deal

-- Virgin's owner. Is this not good in that it keeps up competition? Is

the exact same principle as the previous discussion. We had to go

out to Brussels to get an answer for something, and in the end, we have

the same thing that OfCom wanted in the first place. I believe that

should have been a decision for the UK to take copper whether we have

three or four operators in the UK. That is something which should

fundamentally be a decision for the British government. The fact that is

being decided by Brussels is a fundamental problem. According to

Rory, that is where the companies wanted it to be decided. The more

general point, the number of mobile phone companies we should have

operating in Britain should be a matter for the Brits. This is an

issue between the companies. They are good companies. The European

Unions should not have a view about that. They have also stepped in and

stopped similar mergers recently in Denmark and Italy. Is point is that

they shouldn't be doing that either. I can see the point that Brussels

getting involved, it may be a European competition, but if this

was about the British market should it not have been left to the British

authorities? Not that the result would have been any different. He is

right to say that this is another great example where what Britain

wanted won. And it is in Europe's interests that we have investment in

mobile phone technology. With Gordon to four -- 4G, we need competition

not consolidation. I have no problem with competition. The UK should be

taking those decisions and I believe that the decision would be the

correct one. We should have to apply to Brussels to ask. Some of these

things are good things, why don't we wake up and recognise it? The

average telephone user is paying ?52 less a year on their mobile phone

bill because of Europe. If I'm in Switzerland, there are no roaming

charges whatsoever. It's called the free market. It is bringing prices

down. How much do you paid to be part of the single market? The deal

struck between the EU and Turkey in regards to the migrant crisis has

had some success. It has contributed to the easing of the flow of people

from Turkey to Greece. It hasn't been without controversy. Part of

the deal was to give Turkey around 79 million citizens of free access

to the EU and the promise of talks regarding Turkey becoming a member

of the EU. But there is an issue regarding Turkey's refusal to change

their laws on terrorism. Our correspondence is in Strasbourg.

Migrants crossing a legally from Turkey to Greece are being sent

back. The deal so far has slowed the influx of migrants. For every

migrants deported to Turkey, a legitimate Syrian refugee is

resettled in the EU. What does Turkey get in return? 3 billion

euros in aid and the prospect of visa free travel for its citizens if

the country needs certain standards. The question as to whether those

have been reached has opened up a gulf between the commission and the

European Parliament. The issue was debated in Strasbourg this week.

There was agreement that the country is still falling short of the

requirement. The majority in this Parliament has stated that we

believe, especially in the last 12 months, Turkey is increasingly

moving away from meeting European standards, rather than what one

would expect from a candidate EU country. We have great concerns in

the Parliament when it comes to the rule of law, democracy, press

freedom. Fai benchmarks need to be reached by Turkey. -- five. Despite

talks between EU officials and Turkish ministers, some MEPs are up

in arms about the deal. I think that the best way forward is to put our

own house in order. We need to solve the crisis ourselves by putting in

place a European border and coastguard, a new European asylum

system, new ways for legal migration. Angela Merkel has been

accused of prematurely rolling out the red carpet for Turkey in

exchange for help with the migrant crisis. Many MEPs here also believe

it brings the idea of Turkey's joining of the EU closer. That has

been dismissed by members of her political group. She is fighting for

a good neighbourhood. She is working on the issue and tries to convince

Turkey because Turkey is an important part of Nato. They are

important as a neighbour between this area of Syria and Iraq. And it

is sceptical of the entire project claim its leaders are deliberately

linking the migrant deal with talks of leadership because they are

looking beyond the current crisis. TRANSLATION: They want to allow

Turkey into the European Union union because it would mean cheaper

Labour. Time is running out. This vote on June 28, five days after the

UK referendum. The signs are it will be rejected. Turkey 's president has

warned that if it does not give the Visa waiver, he will and the

migration deal. Is this EU - German deal in danger of unravelling? Is it

sustainable doesn't respect human rights? We do not know and we are

asking tough questions about it. Do you have to approve it as the

Parliament? It is to scrutinise this deal but we are also responsible for

some of the cash assistance. It has stopped people dying at sea stop we

have to welcome that. It has two help the defenceless in Turkey. Are

you worried about it? Of course. Some of the human rights NGOs have

pulled out because they do not believe human rights are being

respect that. Is there are danger this deal will unravel? Should we

have done this deal in the first place? My point of view is the UK

needs to leave the EU so what the European Union does with Turkey it

is their problem once we are in, I have problems with the amount of

money sending. We are sending our lot of money out to those countries

to help them join the EU and see that the massive problem. In terms

of the deal itself, if the UK were not in the European Union, well, it

is matter for the EU to decide what with the UK in our have big

problem... It doesn't mean that it is a lot easier for people to get

closer to the UK and... But the rules... Is the Visa free waiver

from Turks, and only 7 million Turks have passports anyway, it is not 79

million going to start going to come, it still does not get them

into this country. You saying more Turks would not apply for

passports? But that is quite prolonged process. For our long

period, the EU rewarded Turkey with assertions that talks and access to

the single market as Turkey liberalised and became more modern,

more democratic, now it seems to be rewarding Turkey as it becomes more

the critique, -- theocratic and less liberal. The minister has been

shunted out who did the deal. The president might be putting in one of

his relatives as Prime Minister. And possibly wants to change the

Constitution to have more power in his hand. I am not going to hide

these concerns but it is not simply the humanitarian case but in

economic terms it is cheaper to help refugees are where they are now.

This is along term issue. Ukip Radek campaign saying millions of Turks

were becoming end but it is not true. -- brand campaign. You cannot

believe the claims. No one is saying that many people. No he did not.

Look, if Turkey joined the European Union, and more chapters are open,

eventually there will be the free movement right that anyone from

Turkey who wishes to come to the UK could come and that would be A

significant number. Provided we did not veto it and the French did not

referendum. But things I would suggest... We have British veto

against Turkey joining is something that is going to happen only... It

only takes one point two scare people. But the problem with vetoes

is that once you give veto, you cannot give it back. You have to

trust Jeremy Corbyn... Only recently the Prime Minister used to be big

fan of Turkey joining. We move onto Portugal because it was third

country to have to ask for bail after Greece and Ireland. --

bailout. It is still facing low growth and struggling to bounce its

books. We went there to find out more.

(MUSIC PLAYING). I suppose this is Portugal's burning ham, its second

biggest city. ?62 billion were given on condition they made cuts to

public spending. That was two years ago, but is everything signed? Not

according to these under employed architects who now host walking

tours with A bailout scheme. First new hotel. We are not blaming this

hotel in particular or even the hotel people because that is not the

issue but this hotel had over 5 billion euros in tax money. There is

not the debate on this in Portugal. There is no general conversation

about what we are supposed to do with the tax money. Instead, they

would rather see this old car parks factory spruced up for the benefit

of locals. That could be an informal school, someplace to take care of

your bikes over there, I workshop for metal... I am an optimist. There

are a lot of empty shops but the thing that upset this to the most is

how many of their friends have emigrated. I feel sad that so many

people had to go. That I do not like, I do not think it is smart as

the country logic. We are desperately needing the same people

we lost. That makes me sad... The rest is not so right politics.

Things are looking much rosier here, they are in some port brands which

and it is the company that has done OK. We bought businesses, launched

businesses. People thought I was insane when I launched business in

the middle of the crisis in 2010 by people want to travel, explore, and

this is what you can do in Portugal. Recession is tough but it is in

those environments where good businesses tend to do well and the

weaker businesses tend to be weeded out. Politics is no more of

complicated cocktail. The European Commission keeping close eye on what

is going on. In the eurozone crisis never quite

goes away. At least the plan for the people most did. They struck up the

good relationship with British Labour and they have minority

government that is going to be out of the row about scheme this year

and which has replaced the Conservative government, they have

brought in all the cuts but it is better news story than you think. We

shall see. That is it for now. Thank you for joining us and come back and

see you soon. Bye-bye.