Find out how Fiona spends her week

Monday 13th March

A sunny arrival in Strasbourg (perhaps a signal that spring is on its way!). I started my working day with a telephone interview about the work of the Environment Agency and how I work with it. Then the usual round of political group meetings preparing for the plenary debates.

Tuesday 14th March

I had a clash of meetings this morning but my assistant was able to cover one for me and alert me when it was nearly time for me to speak. One meeting was about the Election Observation Mission to Haiti, to discuss the second round taking place in April, the other an ALDE discussion on a resolution on the security of the EU's energy supply. The highlight of the afternoon was speaking to students from Durham Gilesgate School - the first of my visitors' groups who have chosen to visit the European Parliament in Strasbourg rather than Brussels.

Wednesday 15th March

Nellie Kroes the Competition Commissioner spoke to the Industry, Research and Energy Committee Members this morning about the enquiry the Commission is carrying out into the gas and electricity markets. I asked some very sharp questions about gas prices as the failure of the gas internal market is crippling NE firms with huge gas bills. Then I knuckled down with my assistant to finalise amendments to the 7th Framework Programme on Research before the deadline. Later I met with some representatives from the UK Petroleum Industry Association to discuss their role in working towards better energy efficiency in the transport sector.

Thursday 16th March

I used my time this morning to work on casework letters and catch up with my committee work before voting. The first voting session is before lunch and on Thursday afternoons there is a further vote on the "urgency" resolutions - on emergency human rights issues. I left the parliament in plenty of time to catch my train back to Brussels but there had been an accident in the city and the resulting gridlock meant I got to the station in time to see the train sliding away from the platform! This complicated my travel plans somewhat but my assistant saved the day - I took a train to Paris, where she had booked me a hotel, then a fast Thalys train at the crack of dawn from Paris to catch my flight to Newcastle.

Friday 17th March

Lots of casework to catch up on in my constituency office in Durham before meeting local campaigners who are wanting to get traffic calming in a number of villages in the Sherburn area.