Tag Archives: european parliament

Mark Valladares

European Parliament overwhelmingly rejects ACTA

By Mark Valladares | Wed 4th July 2012 - 3:22 pm

The culmination of weeks of campaigning and lobbying against the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) came this morning, as the European Parliament voted 478 to 39 to reject it, despite the fact that twenty-two member states, including the United Kingdom, had already signed it. As a result, the Agreement is now likely to become irrelevant without the support of European Union nations.

The Agreement had already been rejected by five Committees of the European Parliament, and despite attempts by Conservative MEPs to defer the vote, as urged by UNI MEI, a “global union for the Media, Entertainment and Art Industries”, …

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Posted in Europe / International and News | Also tagged and | 9 Comments
Margaret Joachim and Jonathan Davies

Do you want to be a candidate in the UK’s next national elections?

By Margaret Joachim and Jonathan Davies | Thu 31st May 2012 - 10:23 am

The selection process for our candidates for the 2014 European Parliamentary elections is now starting. The formal advert will be published next month, and the closing date for applications is likely to be 20 July.

All applicants must be approved European candidates by the date of the close of applications.

Anyone interested in being a candidate should apply for approval as soon as possible – you can get the necessary application pack from the Candidates’ Office at Party HQ: email [email protected]. Candidates who have been approved for Westminster elections but not for European elections need to undertake a brief Euro assessment/conversion …

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Posted in Europe / International and Selection news | 2 Comments
Mark Valladares

This week in Europe: 21-24 May

By Mark Valladares | Tue 22nd May 2012 - 7:52 am

Yes, we’re back in Strasbourg, apparently, for another week of drama and excitement. Alright, perhaps I exaggerate a bit… and apologise for being a little behind.

Yesterday saw the first debate on the new EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, which will include a provision for visa-free travel to Canada for all EU citizens, something the Americans could perhaps learn from, as well as a series of short debates on, amongst other things, the EU’s internal security strategy and strengthening the rights of vulnerable consumers.

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Posted in Europe / International, News and Parliament | Leave a comment
Catherine Bearder

Catherine Bearder MEP writes… Lib Dem MEPs kill ACTA

By Catherine Bearder | 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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Posted in News and Op-eds | Also tagged and | 3 Comments
Mark Valladares

European Parliament votes through new agreement on transfer of air passenger data to US authorities

By Mark Valladares | Fri 20th April 2012 - 3:45 pm

On Thursday, the Parliament voted on a new agreement on the transfer of EU air passengers’ personal data to the US authorities. The deal sets legal conditions and covers issues such as storage periods, use, data protection safeguards and administrative and judicial redress, and replaces a provisional deal in place since 2007.

The EU-US Passenger Name Record (PNR) agreement was adopted with 409 votes in favour, 226 against and 33 abstentions, with two-thirds of the ALDE MEPs taking part voting against due to concerns over data protection safeguards, including rapporteur Sophie in’T Veld (D’66, Netherlands, ALDE), who withdrew her name …

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Posted in Europe / International and News | Also tagged , and | 7 Comments
George Potter

Postcard from Strasbourg

By George Potter | Fri 20th April 2012 - 1:15 pm

Compared to rainy London and Paris, spring has definitely arrived in Strasbourg. Aside from the occasional fleeting band of clouds, the skies are bright blue and the temperature wonderfully mild.

Strasbourg is a city of wide streets and avenues and buildings which can be either distinctly German or distinctly French in their architecture – a legacy of two thousand years on the border between France and Germany.

This legacy, in many ways, defines the city. Most Strasbourgeoise, especially the younger generation, speak French, but most of the older generation still speak the Alsatian dialect of German. The region might be famed for …

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Posted in Europe / International | Leave a comment
Mark Valladares

Coming up in Brussels: 17-20 April

By Mark Valladares | Tue 17th April 2012 - 11:21 am

Welcome to another experiment. Due to a late substitution amongst the LDV Editorial team, combined with a lack of material (you’re all out campaigning, as you should be, I presume), welcome to our first attempt to preview forthcoming events in the European Parliament. Let us know what you think or, if you fancy doing it yourself, get in touch.

Well, I say Brussels, but this week sees the European Parliamentary roadshow hit Strasbourg to waste a chunk of money to placate the French for April’s plenary session. So, …

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Posted in Europe / International and News | Also tagged and | 8 Comments
Margaret Joachim and Jonathan Davies

Choosing the best team for Europe

By Margaret Joachim and Jonathan Davies | Tue 3rd April 2012 - 3:15 pm

The Party in England will select our candidates for the next European Parliamentary elections later this year. Although the elections are not until 2014, having candidates in place eighteen months before the elections will allow them to play a leading role in the formulation of the campaign strategy, as well as starting to campaign across the Euro Regions.

As with all selections, our candidates are chosen in a ballot of all Party members. This ballot also determines the order in which candidates appear on the list. For the Euro elections, there will be a postal ballot which is likely to take place in November. Before the ballot, all members will have the opportunity to meet the candidates at a series of hustings, most of which will probably take place at the autumn regional conferences. The candidates will also be using their best campaigning endeavours to contact members.

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Posted in Europe / International, News and Selection news | 1 Comment
Caron Lindsay

Liblink: Andrew Duff MEP “Why do MEPs fear electoral reform?”

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 24th March 2012 - 9:27 am

Andrew Duff, Liberal Democrat MEP for the East of England has written for EU Observer about his attempts to change the electoral system for MEPs. He wants to see 25 MEPs elected on a pan European basis, a proposal he believes will improve the legitimacy of the Parliament:

Now the Union is moving to greater fiscal discipline and the probable installation of a more federal type of economic government which will have to be made directly accountable to Parliament. But do we sincerely believe that the European Parliament has attracted the desirable levels of loyalty and identification of the EU citizens

…

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Posted in Europe / International and Op-eds | Also tagged , and | 6 Comments
Caron Lindsay

Liberal Democrat MEP McMillan-Scott gets European Parliament Human Rights portfolio

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 22nd February 2012 - 5:57 pm

Liberal Democrat MEP for Yorkshire and the Humber, Edward McMillan-Scott, re-elected as one of the European Parliament’s 14 Vice Presidents last month, has again been allocated the portfolio for Democracy and Human Rights.  He has also been given a new responsibility, for Transatlantic Relations. He was put forward by the Liberal Group (ALDE) and is only British MEP on the Parliament’s Bureau which is responsible for its management, organisation and finances.

He has a long record in campaigning for human rights and democracy support. He was the first outside politician to get to Cairo after the fall of Mubarak and has …

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Posted in Europe / International and News | Also tagged and | Leave a comment
Mark Pack

Another step towards ending the waste of two European Parliament locations

By Mark Pack | Fri 17th February 2012 - 1:50 pm

Whether it’s the cost, the environmental impact or the disruption to operating the organisation, the continuation of two locations for the European Parliament has few friends. The friends it does have, who think it’s a sensible way of spending time and money to shuttle one institution back and forth between Brussels and Strasbourg, are very tenacious though. Yet as a result the obvious waste of these arrangements continues to overshadow the steps the European Parliament does take to cut waste elsewhere.

As a result, progress has been slow, but another step has been taken as London Lib Dem MEP Sarah Ludford has reported:

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Chris Davies

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

By Chris Davies | Mon 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 …

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Posted in Op-eds | 11 Comments
Paul Haydon

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

By Paul Haydon | Sat 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 …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 13 Comments
Mark Valladares

European Parliament – another day, more elections…

By Mark Valladares | Fri 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 …

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Posted in News | Also tagged and | 1 Comment
Mark Pack

How should Diana Wallis be replaced?

By Mark Pack | Thu 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 …

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Posted in Party policy and internal matters | Also tagged and | 54 Comments
NewsHound

LibDem MEP retains influential European economic role

By NewsHound | Thu 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.

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Posted in News | Also tagged | 11 Comments
NewsHound

Diana Wallis MEP resigns

By NewsHound | Thu 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

…

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Posted in News | Also tagged | 19 Comments
Mark Valladares

Martin Schulz elected as new President of the European Parliament

By Mark Valladares | Wed 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, …

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Posted in Europe / International and News | Also tagged | 2 Comments
Mark Pack

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

By Mark Pack | Mon 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

…

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Posted in Europe / International | Also tagged and | 2 Comments
Mark Pack

Sarah Ludford opposed plans to refurbish MEP offices

By Mark Pack | Thu 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 …

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Posted in Europe / International and News | Also tagged and | 5 Comments
Chris Davies

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

By Chris Davies | Mon 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.

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Posted in Europe / International, News and Op-eds | Also tagged , , , , and | 21 Comments
Diana Wallis MEP

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

By Diana Wallis MEP | Tue 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’!

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 11 Comments
Mark Pack

West Midlands to get an extra MEP

By Mark Pack | Tue 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 and News | Also tagged | Leave a comment
Iain Roberts

Speed voting European style

By Iain Roberts | Sat 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.

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Posted in Europe / International | 5 Comments
Mark Pack

Britain set to gain an extra MEP

By Mark Pack | Wed 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.

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

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Posted in Election law | 4 Comments
Mark Pack

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

By Mark Pack | Wed 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 …

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Posted in News | Also tagged , and | 2 Comments
Mark Pack

European Parliament rejects plans to hand bank details to the US

By Mark Pack | Tue 16th February 2010 - 5:52 pm

Sharing of bank records with the US started in 2001 in an effort to tackle terrorism. However, the European Parliament has rejected new proposed agreement after heated criticisms that too much private information could be handed over without good reason.

The Register reported:

The European Parliament has rejected a proposed interim agreement on SWIFT – under which the US gets access to European bank transactions…

Rapporteur Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert from the Netherlands said the Council had not been tough enough on data protection and rules in the interim agreement on data protection were not proportionate to the security supposedly provided.

London Lib Dem …

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Posted in Europe / International | Also tagged , and | 4 Comments
Stephen Tall

Clegg: Tories “should come clean” on attempts to airbrush Kaminski’s far right past

By Stephen Tall | Sun 18th October 2009 - 9:45 am

The Observer has the story:

The Tories were last night accused of a “systematic cover-up” when it emerged that someone at the House of Commons had deleted internet details about a key European ally with a far-right past. Politically embarrassing information about Michal Kaminski, a Polish politician who now leads the Tories in the European parliament, was removed from Wikipedia by someone in the Commons three days after the alliance was formed.

Chris Bryant, the government’s new minister for Europe, called on the Conservatives to “come clean” after the Observer discovered that details of Kaminski’s previous membership of the far-right National Revival of Poland party had been mysteriously removed.

The information was deleted on 25 June by someone using a computer connection directly traceable to the House of Commons. The European Conservatives and Reformists Group, which Kaminski leads and in which the Tories are founder members, was formed on 22 June.

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Posted in Europe / International and News | Also tagged and | 4 Comments
Stephen Tall

Expelled Tory MEP reveals fascist links of Tories’ new Euro leader

By Stephen Tall | Fri 31st July 2009 - 11:25 am

Lib Dem Voice has covered before the growing embarrassment to the Tories of David Cameron’s decision to withdraw his party from the centre-right grouping in the European Parliament, the EPP, and to establish a new right-wing grouping with an eccentric, ragbag group of Euro MPs.

This came to a head last month, when Edward McMillan-Scott, a former leader of the Tory party in the European Parliament, was expelled for standing against a Polish MEP, Michal Kaminski, for the post of Vice-President of the European Parliament – Mr Kaminski was subsequently elected leader of the Tories’ new Euro grouping. And now Mr McMillan-Scott has gone on the record in the Yorskshire Post to reveal precisely why he decided to make a stand against the Tory party’s latest descent into Euro lunacy:

Although Kaminski was nominated by the new Conservatives and Reformists Group (ECR) created by David Cameron, I decided to take the issue head on, even at the discomfiture of my own party. I did this at great personal and political risk – I could have lost everything and have now lost the whip – but I did it on principle.

It was not my principle – it was a higher one. To oppose a menacing political movement at a key moment in Europe’s politics. … my Yorkshire colleague, Timothy Kirkhope – leader of the Conservative MEPs – who that day had been elected leader of the ECR, was simply replaced by Kaminski. …

It has now been disclosed, as Kaminski should have done to the Conservative Party when nominated for Vice-President, that he has had fascist links – he was a member of Poland’s notorious fascist National Revival (NOP) – and he tried, as its MP, to cover up one of the worst anti-Jewish atrocities in wartime Europe.

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Posted in Europe / International and News | Also tagged , and | 11 Comments
Stephen Tall

Lib Dem Chris Davies sticks up for Ukip’s EU whistleblower

By Stephen Tall | Tue 21st July 2009 - 3:30 pm

The Telegraph reports:

Marta Andreason, the former Brussels whistle blower sacked by Lord Kinnock, has been blocked from taking a senior position at the European Parliament by MEPs fearful of future ‘scandal’.

Mrs Andreasen was blocked by Christian Democrat and Socialist MEPs from becoming vice-chairman of the European Parliament’s budgetary committee on Monday.

The centre-Right European People’s Party and the Socialists broke parliamentary convention on the allocation of committee posts by demanding a vote by secret ballot to block Mrs Andreasen, who was elected as a Ukip MEP for South East England last month.

Lib Dem MEP for the North-West Chris Davies is …

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Posted in Europe / International and News | Also tagged , and | 2 Comments
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