News Releases
Showing: December 2008
Here you can find an archive of all the news items that have been on this website as well as any comments, polls or surveys.
EU healthcare debate welcomed
Posted,12/15/2008 7:00:00 PM
Responding to the launch of the European Commission's consultation on improving healthcare services, John Bowis MEP, Conservative health spokesman in the European Parliament and the parliament's rapporteur on cross-border health, said:
Labour MEPs must back Working Time opt-out
Posted,12/15/2008 5:00:00 PM
Labour could be the difference between victory and defeat
EU climate change concessions are disappointing
Posted,12/12/2008 4:00:00 PM
Brown fails to show leadership on Climate Change package
Irish voters should not be deceived by Lisbon 'tinkering'
Posted,12/12/2008 1:00:00 PM
No fundamental changes
Britain fined £74.5 million for Labour's incompetence
Posted,12/12/2008 12:00:00 PM
Single Farm Payment delays result in massive fine Brussels, 11th December 2008 -- The European Commission has fined Britain £74.5million for the Single Farm Payments fiasco that caused misery to farmers across the country when it was introduced in 2005. The Rural Payments Agency was dogged by late payments and administrative error in 2005, when Britain failed to meet the EU's statutory deadline for getting subsidy cheques to farmers. Conservative chairman of the European Parliament's agriculture committee, Neil Parish MEP, said: "Once again our government's incompetence has caused British farmers and the British taxpayer to lose out. "When at Defra, Margaret Beckett introduced a hybrid system for making payments that everybody told her would lead to this calamity, yet she went ahead anyway. "Beckett's legacy of blunders is still being felt in the coutryside today, yet she still sits around the Cabinet table. That shows the level of contempt this government has for the countryside."
Conservatives sponsor mental health report for terror victims
Posted,12/11/2008 5:00:00 PM
Conservatives sponsor mental health report for terror victims
Irish pork alert highlights need for proper labelling system
Posted,12/10/2008 3:00:00 PM
Brussels, 9th December 2008 --- Neil Parish, Conservative Chairman of the European Parliament's Agriculture Committee has called for a better labelling regime for processed foods after it emerged that food packaged as "Made in Britain" could contain Irish pork caught up in the diocin alert in the Republic.At present processed foods containing pork may contain ingredients from all over the European Union or from further afield, yet if they are processed in the UK, the final product can be labelled as being "Made in Britain." Mr Parish has campaigned for some time to have the principle meat ingredients labelled according to their country of origin to allow people to make an informed choice as to where their food has come from and to make it easier to trace and identify food ingredients in the event of food scares like the one experienced in Ireland this week.Mr Parish said: "We are in desperate need of a better labelling system. If all meat ingredients were traceable, either by way of a barcode or a link to a website which listed them all and their country of origin, it would be far easier to be sure that potentially contaminated meat could be traced in the event of a scare. Otherwise uncertainty reigns and we have the present situation where nobody is quite sure where or how serious a scare actually is.
Incandescent bulb ban may be too early
Posted,12/8/2008 6:00:00 PM
EU must balance health and environment concerns
It's now or never for Europe to lead on Climate Change
Posted,12/4/2008 3:00:00 PM
EU must live up to its commitments
Deal reached on car CO2 emissions
Posted,12/2/2008 11:00:00 AM
Agreement will encourage greener cars without driving manufacturers out of business