Author Archives: Catherine Bearder MEP

Catherine Bearder MEP

Catherine Bearder MEP writes … The British media is in love with the Euromyth

By Catherine Bearder MEP | Tue 27th November 2012 - 9:02 am

The invented tales about European Union policy have the ability to amuse and terrify the public.

But Catherine Bearder, a Liberal Democrat MEP for South East England, explains why she has launched her Euromyth Buster campaign to make sure fact is not substituted for fantasy.

Let’s face it, is it any surprise people in the UK get exasperated by the European Union? They are swamped with erroneous tales of alleged devious directives and barmy plans from ‘meddling Brussels bureaucrats’. I have my favourites.

  • There was the ‘fear’

…

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged | 16 Comments
Catherine Bearder MEP

Catherine Bearder MEP writes…The simple Lib Dem approach to aviation

By Catherine Bearder MEP | Mon 10th September 2012 - 11:54 am

Why was I not surprised?

The knee-jerk, short-sighted reaction of Tory backbenchers to dwindling airport capacity was simple: Bung another runway onto the sprawling tarmac at Heathrow.

The airport already pumps out pollution and noise affecting hundreds of thousands of people and a moment’s respite lasts 90 seconds until the next jet swoops from the skies.

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Catherine Bearder MEP

Catherine Bearder MEP writes… Lib Dem MEPs kill ACTA

By Catherine Bearder MEP | Fri 27th April 2012 - 9:10 am

After careful consideration, Lib Dem MEPs have decided to reject the controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) in the European Parliament. There is now a majority in the Parliament that will reject the ratification of this plurilateral treaty originally designed to establish international standards for intellectual property rights.

So why do we reject ACTA?

In principle, Lib Dems support the protection of intellectual property rights (IPR) and the fight against counterfeiting – in particular when it comes to dangerous counterfeit medicines, electronics and toys. But we are also champions of fundamental rights and freedoms and we must weigh up carefully between the need to …

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Catherine Bearder MEP

Lib Dem MEPs help expose draft ACTA text

By Catherine Bearder MEP | Thu 29th April 2010 - 11:20 am

The secrecy surrounding Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) has concerned me and many of my constituents as it has many MEPs. As a member of the European Parliament’s Committee on International Trade, I met the European Commission in early March to discuss the unacceptable level of secrecy in which these negotiations are shrouded, and demanded that we in the European Parliament, as the only directly elected representatives of the public at European level, be given immediate access to the final draft of the consolidated negotiating text. You can view my question here.

Following severe criticism from myself and a number of my …

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Catherine Bearder MEP

Opinion: Climate change – a final chance to act

By Catherine Bearder MEP | Mon 7th December 2009 - 3:01 pm

Catherine Bearder MEP at the Wave climate march

So it has finally arrived, the first day of the Copenhagen Climate Change summit. We have been led to believe that it’s going to fail, then it’s going to succeed and then it will fail again, it’s been quite a rollercoaster. This has really tested the participating countries’ resolve to tackle this issue. This is made tougher because of the economic crisis which has caused hardships for so many people and so it’s understandable that the economy …

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