Last week I took the opportunity to get around the region before the summer break and I had my own mini tour of the South East! I went from Milton Keynes for their local conference in the north to Kent in the east to visit Dungeness B power station, ending up in the region’s most southerly point, the Isle of Wight.

It’s been a long week with a lot of miles covered but it really has been fantastic to visit so many people and places. I noticed a general theme emerging on my travels, safety. As you can see here, when visiting a nuclear power station I found that almost all of our discussions focussed around safety. It was amazing to have the opportunity to stand on top of a reactor and to talk about the consequences for the industry after Fukushima.

Before heading to the Isle of Wight (you can read more about that below) I met with a director of Wightlink, one of the ferry services to the Island, to discuss a number of issues that affect them and was also given the opportunity to make the crossing on the bridge with the Captain. I asked the captain about issues that they are most concerned with and was surprised to hear that safety concerns around small boats in shipping lanes was their top issue. You can read more about this here, I was interested to learn that there are no licensing requirements to sail boats in UK waters (unlike in France) so I’d like to hear from any sailors and pleasure-boaters out there about what they would feel about this.

The Trip to the Isle of Wight

I was delighted to be able to revisit the Isle of Wight last week to meet with so many interesting people and see what I could do to help them.

This whirlwind visit began with a meeting with meeting Natural Enterprise an organisation that provides environmental consultancy, economic development work, through to managing European Funding Programmes. I first heard of them when they organised this festival. An island is clearly a great example of how environmental issues may go on to affect all of us and I was shocked to hear that some parts of the Island are eroding at 6m a year!

I was then whisked to a meeting with two energetic brothers who have started their own clothing company, making clothes that are organic, from renewable energy powered factories using ethical and fair labour. The company, Rapanui, have also started a campaign to introduce “eco-labelling” to the clothing industry. They want to see a Europe-wide rating given to all clothes sold (in the same form as the rating given to white goods relating to energy efficiency) taking into account how environmentally and ethically sound the clothes we buy are. They’ve asked for my help with this so I look forward to taking that forward with them.

A visit to a local cattle farm was next on the agenda. The farm was the South Eastern regional winner in the RSPB nature in farming awards and was a great example of what farms can do to protect and encourage biodiversity. As you can see from the picture, we got very close and personal with prize highland cattle so I was glad I brought my wellies!

I had dinner with some of the local Lib Dems in the evening and was interviewed by an Island radio station in the morning. All in all, it was a fairly packed 24 hours! The weather wasn’t the best but I had a great time and I look forward to going back soon.

Oar-Inspiring Girls “Row For Freedom” to Fight Trafficking

I wanted to highlight an amazing feat that is being attempted later in the year for a wonderful cause. A group of ordinary girls are launching an extraordinary double world record attempt by bidding to row the Atlantic unaided.

The glamorous team, ranging from charity workers to models, will aim to become the first six-woman crew to cross the ocean. And they will also attempt to become the fastest female crew to achieve the feat.

But their bid to row 3,000 miles in a tiny carbon boat is not motivated by sporting glory but by a mission to highlight the scandal of human trafficking in and out of the UK and internationally. The courageous six are also aiming to raise £1million for charities that help victims of the devastating modern-day slave trade.

The Row For Freedom bid is the brainchild of Julia Immonen, 31, founder of Sport Against Trafficking, which is aiming to harness the positive power of sport to raise public awareness and money for projects to tackle human trafficking. I first met Julia last year when she spoke at my event to mark EU anti-trafficking day. I will be doing all I can to help her in the build up to this amazing challenge and will be sure to keep you updated on their progress.

For more information about Row For Freedom visit www.rowforfreedom.com

Sharon and Nobel Peace Prize winner discuss possibility of UK-based Social Stock Exchange
This month my colleague in the South East Sharon Bowles met with Nobel Peace Prize winner, Muhammad Yunus, to discuss Social Business.

Yunus, known to some as ‘Banker to the Poor’, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for his pioneering work to establish creditworthiness and financial self-sufficiency in his native Bangladesh, one of the poorest countries in the world.

Sharon and Mr Yunus discussed the benefits of social businesses, which are run to provide solutions to specific social problems on a not-for-profit basis.

Sharon said: “Like any ordinary business, a social business has shareholders but dividends are not paid and any increase in share price is returned to the company for reinvestment and more socially beneficial work. You could look at it as a returnable charitable donation.

“Some large ordinary companies are involved in partnerships for Social Business as part of their corporate social responsibility programs; these include Danone, BASF, and GE Healthcare. So far, there are not any UK companies participating and I would very much like to see that changed. In particular, this is an opportunity for the City to show it has some heart and learn that there are things worth doing other than pocketing cash.

“Professor Yunus is aiming to set up a stock exchange for Social Business and Europe is an obvious place for this to be – I said ‘where better than London’ and he agreed. Of course, that could only happen if UK involvement in the project took-off.”

Celebrating Volunteering in Winchester

On my way back from the Isle of Wight I was delighted to make a quick stop off to continue highlighting the work of volunteers and celebrate the European year of volunteering – this month in Winchester.

I wanted to ensure that I included an organisation that is not only almost entirely dependent on volunteers in helping so many people across the country but which is also very close to my heart, the Citizen’s Advice Bureau.

The Citizens Advice service helps people resolve their legal, money and other problems by providing advice and information, and by influencing policymakers. It was great to be able to meet and talk with the staff of the Winchester CAB. I used to manage a CAB so it was really interesting to see all the things that had changed (and all the things that hadn’t!).

28,500 people work across the Citizens Advice service and 21,500 of them are volunteers. The volunteers give over £106 million worth of hours a year between them. They’re a fantastic example of the power of volunteers and the volunteers that I spoke to, talked about how much they got out of it. If you are interested in volunteering at your local CAB or finding out more information you can do here.

This Month’s Euromyth!

This month I was contacted by a constituent regarding a story reported in a couple of papers that…

“England football team ‘could be forced to wear EU flag’”

Some papers are reporting that national football teams would be forced to wear the EU flag on their jerseys under contentious plans being proposed by the European Parliament. This is not true.

“Brussels” is not forcing British teams to wear the EU flag now, nor is it remotely likely to do so ever. A single Spanish MEP has at this stage floated a suggestion in a report going to committee.

The report referred to can be amended at every stage of the process, making it possible for MEPs to oppose the suggestion that players should wear the EU flag on their shirts. Even if the whole Parliament ended up endorsing the report in its entirety this would simply constitute the basis for a request to the European Commission to come up with a legislative proposal which would then have to be agreed by member state’s ministers as well as MEPs.

It is also worth pointing out that the report discussed is looking at ways to respond to pan-European challenges such as in the fight against violence and racism in sport, doping, encouraging good governance in sport, and helping associations establish mechanisms for the collective selling of media rights to ensure adequate redistribution of revenues. Lots of good ideas, but guess which half a sentence the Europhobes pounced on?!

For more myth-busting, have a look at the Euromyth section on my website. Hopefully our responses to these myths will help all of you if you’re challenged about them in a heated European debate!

Holidaying in Europe?

One of the (many!) advantages of the European Union is that it has meant that holidaying within the area is much easier and safer for its citizens. With safety as a theme for this month’s newsletter I wanted to remind you of a few important things that you always need to remember when travelling abroad to make your holiday as enjoyable as possible.

Fortunately, there is now no need to look up and remember the emergency numbers for each EU country you are visiting. Just remember 112!

112 is the European emergency number, reachable from fixed and mobile phones, free of charge, everywhere in the EU, including the UK.

You also need to remember your European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) before you travel. This replaced the E111 form in 2006 and it gives the holder rights to healthcare that becomes necessary during a temporary visit to EEA (European Economic Area) countries or Switzerland. You can apply for your card by calling 0845 606 2030 or through this website. Happy holidays!

I will be keeping these newsletters coming out regularly to keep you all up to date with our work in the European parliament and the region but if there’s anything you want to see in these pages or any issues or problems you feel I should be looking at then don’t hesitate to contact me at catherine@bearder.eu

With best wishes,
Catherine Bearder
Member of the European Parliament for South East England

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