We are just finishing another busy week in Strasbourg where, amongst other things, we voted through a report to tackle the huge scale organised crime. Read more here.I’m preparing to set off to the Great lakes region of Africa tomorrow where, in my role as a member of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Joint Parliamentary Assembly, I will be looking at the mining industry, the connections it has to conflict in the region and what the EU can do to help in managing the minerals supply chain which too often feeds the conflicts there.I will then be going onto Nairobi to speak to an Interpol conference on another matter close to my heart, the poaching of elephants and rhinos, and what we can do about these dreadful wildlife crimes.

Unfortunately, this will mean that I won’t be able to attend South Central Regional Conference in High Wycombe but I wish all of those attending well.

We had a fantastic time at South East conference in Lancing on Saturday and it was great to see so many people getting behind the Euro campaign. See below about getting involved yourself!

Why are you IN?

The Deputy Prime Minister delivered a strong defence of Britain’s place within the EU this month.

You can read it here if you didn’t see it at the time.

If you are for IN then tell people! Find out more here.

Nick issued a call-to-arms to businesses, charities, organisations and politicians to show their support for Britain’s continued membership in a reformed EU.He also expressed concern that the Euro-sceptics have been allowed to go unchallenged for too long and that ‘ludicrous mythmaking’ (like the example below) needs to be challenged.This speech placed the Lib Dems as the unambiguous party of IN.

Nick is right to say that most of us believe the UK is better off in the EU, but we can’t afford to remain quiet anymore.

Hundreds of thousands of jobs in the South East rely on our strong trading relationship with the EU. Even the threat of exit can put these jobs at risk.

We can only tackle issues such as cross-border crime at an international level. When crime crosses borders, justice must too.

If you believe remaining in the European Union is vital for our jobs, our security and our environment, join the campaign now.

If you are on Twitter then use the hashtag #whyIamIn

Donate to the campaign here.

UK needs an Anti-Trafficking Commissioner

October 18 was EU anti-trafficking day and, as well as joining the Oxford Community Against Trafficking for a demonstration in the centre of town, I took the opportunity to call on the government to install an Anti-Trafficking Commissioner.

I am adding my voice to ECPAT UK and the Anti-Trafficking Monitoring Group (ATMG), a coalition of UK-based charities committed to fighting the trafficking of adults and children in calling for an independent anti-trafficking commissioner.The introduction of a Commissioner is vital in ensuring that the UK meets it obligations under the EU Directive on preventing and combating trafficking in human beings, which came into force in April.The UK government has proved they are committed to fighting human trafficking. New maximum sentences have been announced this month and they are signed up to the EU Directive.

But signing up is one thing, they need to put into practice the actions they’ve agreed to.

It is particularly crucial that this Commissioner is independent to properly scrutinise how the government is responding to this most abhorrent of crimes.

Crimes like human trafficking can only be tackled by working together with our EU partners. A Commissioner will make this easier. When crime and victims cross borders, justice and care must too.

Add your voice to the call for an independent Anti-Trafficking Commissioner here.

Euromyth Buster

The Sunday Telegraph reported this month that a Commission report would say “600,000 unemployed EU migrants are living in Britain at a cost of £1.5 billion to the NHS alone”.

As a Commission spokesperson has said, this is “a gross and totally irresponsible misrepresentation of the facts”.

What the report really says, among other things, is the following.

The 600 000 figure refers to non-active migrants, a category which includes as well as job seekers, older schoolchildren, students, retired people, people taking time out of the labour market to bring up children and other direct family members.

As a comparison, 43 % of the UK population aged between 15 and 64 – so at a conservative estimate 12 million people – is classified as non-active. Clearly no –one would seriously claim that there were 12 million unemployed people in the UK.

The Sunday Telegraph’s claim that there are 600 000 unemployed EU migrants is equally absurd.

Migrant workers from other Member States – not only in UK but EU-wide – pay more in taxes and social security than they receive in benefits and services – including health services – because they tend to be younger and more economically-active than host countries’ own workforce.

My Euromyth Buster campaign is building quite a following… with plenty of Europhiles and Eurosceptics getting involved in the debate at www.facebook.com/EuromythBuster.

Speed up release of Greenpeace activists

This week, I called on Catherine Ashton to press the Russian authorities over the 28 Greenpeace activists and two freelance journalists still being detained.

I met many of the crew members aboard the Arctic Sunrise last June when it docked in Hastings as part of our campaign to support endangered local fishing communities.As I was speaking in the parliament we were hearing news that the ridiculous charges of piracy have been dropped and replaced with ones for hooliganism. Even President Putin had admitted it’s obvious the Greenpeace personnel and independent journalists accompanying them were not pirates. They’re not hooligans either.What they were doing is highlighting the risks and dangers inherent in oil extraction in the Arctic region. They were speaking for all of us who, following the Gulf of Mexico Oil spill, worry about extraction in even more vulnerable parts of the globe.

The European Parliament needs to show we are doing all we can to support them. That is why I am calling on Catherine Ashton to take up this issue at the next meeting of EU foreign ministers on 21st November, just three days before the activists’ pre-detention hearing. That way we can help to secure their release, get them all home for Christmas and start working with Gazprom to really ensure safe exploration in the Arctic.

Victory for e-cig campaigners

Lib Dem MEPs won a major victory for e-cigarette users when the European Parliament backed our amendment which will ensure e-cigs are available for sale on the same basis as tobacco.

E-cigs can be a game changer in the fight against smoking. Hundreds of former smokers have written to tell me that they have helped them give up cigarettes when nothing else worked.They are successful because they are not medicines but products that smokers enjoy using as an alternative to cigarettes.Every year 700,000 people in Europe die of smoking-related disease. We should not do anything that makes e-cigs harder to obtain than tobacco cigarettes.

I will be keeping these newsletters coming out regularly to keep you all up to date with my 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. My Lib Dem colleague in the European Parliament, Sharon Bowles has now started her own monthly newsletter and you can sign up by visiting her website at www.sharonbowles.org.uk.With best wishes,

Catherine Bearder
Member of the European Parliament for South East England

Worthing Liberal Democrat Councillors

Update From Catherine Bearder MEP