Tag Archives: european parliament

Chris Davies MEP writes… Wallis succession: It just doesn’t sound right

By Chris Davies MEP | Published 23rd January 2012 - 10:24 am

This is a shortened version of a blog post on Chris Davies’ blog. The full version can be read here and contains complimentary comments about Diana Wallis’ parliamentary career.

The resignation of Diana Wallis, MEP for Yorkshire and the Humber, came as a complete shock to her colleagues, and not least to the MEPs from across the political spectrum, including myself, who were with her 10 days ago when she handed in her nomination paper to stand for the presidency of the European Parliament.

On Tuesday morning Diana Wallis was campaigning to lead the Parliament, to …

Posted in Op-eds | 11 Comments

Opinion: MEP Diana Wallis resigns – but the European Parliament’s great ‘stitch-up’ continues

By Paul Haydon | Published 21st January 2012 - 1:00 pm

Liberal Democrat MEP Diana Wallis caused an outcry when she resigned yesterday after coming third in the European Parliament (EP) presidential election, especially as her husband Stewart Arnold is likely to take over her seat. Yet underneath this public relations nightmare, which seems more of an unfortunate coincidence than anything else, there lies a deeper and far more worrying story of political corruption. Diana Wallis’ decision to run as a candidate for the election surprised many observers not because they thought she was unlikely to win, but rather because they knew she wouldn’t. The results had already been decided two and a …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged diana wallis, stewart arnold | 13 Comments

European Parliament – another day, more elections…

By Mark Valladares | Published 20th January 2012 - 11:00 am

Following on from the election of Martin Schulz to the Presidency of the European Parliament earlier this week, European Parliamentarians have been electing fourteen Vice–Presidents and five Quaestors.

Incumbent Vice-President, Edward McMillan-Scott (Liberal Democrat, Yorkshire and the Humber), having been elected last time as a member of the European People’s Party when the Conservatives were still members, was successfully re-elected as a member of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats, meaning that the Liberal Democrats are directly represented on the Bureau, which is the administrative decision-making body in parliament dealing with issues such as buildings and MEPs’ expenses.

The full list …

Posted in News | Also tagged andrew duff, edward mcmillan-scott | 1 Comment

How should Diana Wallis be replaced?

By Mark Pack | Published 19th January 2012 - 11:22 pm

A question for Liberal Democrat members to mull… Under the law used for regional list elections, the decision over who should take over following Diana Wallis’s resignation as an MEP is up to the party (technically, the party’s Nominating Officer).

The general assumption in the past has been that if a list member stands down, it is whoever would have got their place on the list that takes over. That is the process followed in the past, such as in deciding Liz Lynne’s replacement as an MEP on her retirement or Lynne Featherstone’s replacement as a GLA member on her election …

Posted in Party policy and internal matters | Also tagged diana wallis, stewart arnold | 54 Comments

LibDem MEP retains influential European economic role

By NewsHound | Published 19th January 2012 - 8:24 pm

Darren Ennis on MHP reports good news for the UK from the European Parliament:

British Liberal Democrat Sharon Bowles is expected to keep her role as chair of the European Parliament’s influential economic and monetary affairs committee, MHP Sources Say.

Despite winning cross-party praise for her increasingly high profile role during the economic downturn, Bowles risked losing the coveted position following British Prime Minister David Cameron’s EU veto and the decision by her UK Liberal Democrat colleague Diana Wallis to stand in this week’s election of a new President of the European Parliament.

Wallis infuriated Liberal leader Guy Verhofstadt by standing as an independent, putting at risk a political pact he had negotiated with the Parliament’s two largest groups – the centre-right EPP and the Socialists – designed to keep Bowles as head of the Parliament’s most important committee.

Posted in News | Also tagged economics | 11 Comments

Diana Wallis MEP resigns

By NewsHound | Published 19th January 2012 - 6:08 pm

European Voice reports:

Liberal Democrat MEP announces that she is to quit just days after failing in bid to become president of the European Parliament.

Diana Wallis, a British Liberal MEP who this week failed in her bid to become president of the European Parliament, today announced that she is to stand down as an MEP.

Wallis said that after 12 years as an MEP she wanted “to take a break from politics,” adding that it was time “for someone with fresh eyes to take over”. Wallis said she would give up her seat on 31 January.

Wallis came third in

…

Posted in News | Also tagged liberal democrats | 18 Comments

Martin Schulz elected as new President of the European Parliament

By Mark Valladares | Published 18th January 2012 - 4:55 pm

As reported here on Liberal Democrat Voice on Sunday, the election of a new President of the European Parliament took place yesterday and, as expected, Martin Schulz, from the German Social Democrats, was elected with a plurality of votes in the first round of voting. The result was as follows:

Martin Schulz 387 votes

Nirj Deva 142 votes

Diana Wallis 141 votes

Giving his acceptance speech to MEPs, Mr Schulz told MEPs: ”Those who have voted for me can take pride in having done so. Those who didn’t vote for me will be pleasantly surprised.”. However, …

Posted in Europe / International, News | Also tagged diana wallis mep | 2 Comments

What are Lib Dem MEPs up to when it comes to money?

By Mark Pack | Published 5th December 2011 - 11:55 am

I’ve been wondering for a little time what the Liberal Democrat MEPs are pushing for when it comes to the European Union’s budget, which makes London MEP Sarah Ludford’s latest email update particularly timely:

No pro-European LibDem can be other than fully committed to reform of the EU. Any flaws in the way it is run overshadow its good work on everything from research to roaming charges, not to speak of the area I am passionate about, justice and civil liberties. I’m pleased therefore that a deal has been reached for the EU’s 2012 budget which overall represents no real terms

…

Posted in Europe / International | Also tagged european union, sarah ludford | 2 Comments

Sarah Ludford opposed plans to refurbish MEP offices

By Mark Pack | Published 29th September 2011 - 8:45 am

Good to see a Liberal Democrat MEP taking up this cause in a press release:

Liberal Democrat London MEP Sarah Ludford has called for the blocking of plans by European Parliament bosses known as the ‘bureau’ to spend £26 million (€30 million) on improving MEP offices in the Parliament’s Strasbourg building.

The Parliament is currently obliged under the EU treaties – fixed by the 27 national governments – to sit in both Brussels and Strasbourg in a ‘travelling circus’. But in June a majority of MEPs voted in favour of maintaining a single seat in Brussels, which would save 19,000 tonnes of CO2 …

Posted in Europe / International, News | Also tagged european union, sarah ludford | 5 Comments

Chris Davies MEP writes: Conservatives and climate change – Tuesday’s revealing vote in Strasbourg

By Chris Davies MEP | Published 4th July 2011 - 12:49 pm

While Energy Secretary Chris Huhne is at the fore of efforts in the European Council to raise EU ambitions for reducing CO2 emissions, Conservative MEPs are refusing to back the Government’s position, and look set this week instead to demonstrate their real views about efforts to curb global warming.

At issue is a vote due to take place in Strasbourg on Tuesday that will determine the Parliament’s stance on the European Commission’s strategy to promote a low carbon economy. The result is on a knife edge.

Posted in Europe / International, News, Op-eds | Also tagged chris huhne, climate change, david cameron, european commission, martin callanan, roger helmer | 21 Comments

Diana Wallis MEP writes: Turning Julian Assange from poacher to game keeper

By Diana Wallis MEP | Published 8th February 2011 - 12:13 pm

As Julian Assange reappears in court this week and as the Wikileaks saga continues to play out in the national media I am tempted to ask if Julian Assange is the new ‘Catch me if you can’ figure of the internet. Not the iconic image of imposter Frank Abnagale Jnr as portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio in a pilot’s uniform striding through the airport with glamorous air hostesses in the film, but a correspondingly, bright, articulate and believable Robin Hood of the internet. In short: an attractive rogue with a frighteningly forensic mind.

The ending could be similar: finally captured by his antagonists having maybe taken a step too far, but with them having a sneaking admiration for him. One only has to look at the previous legal case in which Assange was involved, in Australia, where he walked free after years of prosecution attempts to obtain a serious conviction against him. In that case the judges admitted that all his hacking activities up until then amounted to nothing more than ‘an intelligent inquisitiveness’!

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged julian assange, wikileaks | 11 Comments

West Midlands to get an extra MEP

By Mark Pack | Published 26th October 2010 - 8:50 pm

Back in July we reported how Britain was set to gain an extra Member of the European Parliament following the Lisbon Treaty. The Electoral Commission has now crunched the numbers using the same rules as previously to allocate MEPs to the different Euro-constituencies and it is West Midlands which comes out with an extra MEP.

Technically the government still has formally to accept the Electoral Commission’s recommendation, but in practice the Commission’s recommendation in this field is what will happen.

Posted in Election law, News | Also tagged electoral commission | Leave a comment

Speed voting European style

By Iain Roberts | Published 23rd October 2010 - 2:38 pm

Votes at Westminster are painfully slow, as MPs are summoned from far and wide to file past into the voting lobbies.

Not so the European Parliament, which was considering over a thousand amendments to the 2011 budget proposals.

Amendments are voting on within six seconds, to the extent that one MEP complains she can’t keep up with all the voting six minutes in.

I’ve not got the faintest idea what any of the amendments were – I can only hope the MEPs themselves …

Posted in Europe / International | 5 Comments

Britain set to gain an extra MEP

By Mark Pack | Published 21st July 2010 - 11:08 pm

A written answer this week confirmed that Britain’s quota of MEPs is about to increase by one:

European Parliament Elections

Priti Patel: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs pursuant to the written ministerial statement of 6 July 2010, Official Report, columns 6-7WS, on the European Parliament Transitionary Protocol, whether the Electoral Commission was consulted on the arrangements for electing a new UK MEP before the intergovernmental conference on 23 June 2010; and if he will make a statement. [8599]

Mr Lidington: The transitionary Protocol concerning the composition of the European Parliament is a technical change to the Treaty relating …

Posted in Election law | 4 Comments

What’s up with Nick Griffin’s expense claims?

By Mark Pack | Published 31st March 2010 - 10:50 am

Lib Dem MEP Chris Davies has spotted some rather odd entries in Nick Griffin’s expense claims from the European Parliament. Nick Griffin had previously stalled on publishing his expenses but now he’s given in to the pressure there are some distinct oddities:

a) Nick Griffin claims to have donated £5,575.91 to a fund that has only declared income of £4560.65.

b) Nick Griffin has previously said he employs three members of staff, one of whom is shared with another MEP. However the expense claims list eight people, give no names and only one of their job titles matches previous public statements about …

Posted in Opposition watch | Also tagged bnp, chris davies, nick griffin | 2 Comments

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