Jean Lambert, London’s Green MEP, has welcomed news today that the UK has been referred to the European Court of Justice for failing to tackle illegal levels of air pollution. The case highlights why the UK critically needs a strong independent environmental watchdog, with the legal teeth to hold the Government to account.

Jean Lambert MEP said:

“It’s extremely worrying that the EU needs to take legal action to force the UK Government to uphold its own legal obligations on NO2 air pollution. After Brexit, this is exactly the sort of legal oversight the Tories hope to escape. [1]

The Government’s own defence – that withholding its clean air plans is in the ‘strong public interest’ – is nothing short of farcical. [2] If ministers truly cared about the public interest, they would stop dragging their feet and do everything in their power to clean up the UK’s dirty air.

This apathy has led to a public health emergency in my constituency, London. Already this year, Brixton Road has exceeded the EU’s average hourly legal limits for NO2 pollution 65 times. Putney High Street has exceeded them 22 times, and spots in Westminster and the City of London aren’t far behind. [3] The Mayor’s decision to push ahead with the new £1bn Silvertown tunnel will simply exacerbate this problem – bringing new roads, new traffic and a new air pollution crisis to the local area. [4]

Hopefully this court case will act as a wake-up call to the Government, and to anyone who cares about the quality of the air they breathe. It highlights why we can’t allow the Tories to leave the EU without creating a strong independent environmental watchdog, with the legal teeth to hold it to account – in fact, it would be a good move in any case. If not, we can be sure they will continue to recklessly flout their environmental and public health responsibilities for many years to come.”

Notes:

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/may/17/uk-taken-to-europes-highest-court-over-air-pollution

[2] http://eeb.org/national-air-pollution-plans-too-little-too-late-to-avoid-court/

[3] https://www.theguardian.com/environment/ng-interactive/2018/jan/01/london-air-pollution-live-data-where-will-be-first-to-break-legal-limits-in-2018

[4] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-44071370

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Happy Europe Day! Today marks 68 years since the Schuman Declaration, which proposed the creation of a European Coal and Steel Community – the forerunner to the European Union.

To mark the occasion, Jean Lambert MEP says:

“Europe Day is a chance to celebrate peace, democracy, human dignity, unity and inclusion. It’s a reminder of how much can be achieved when we put conflict behind us, and work together to create a better world.

To mark this occasion, I will join European Movement campaigners in London to discuss what I appreciate most about the EU. Where to begin? On a practical level, the EU has strengthened our rights and protections. Strong laws on environmental protection improve our health and aim to protect our planet. Collaborating with our neighbours and moving freely throughout 27 other EU countries has also enriched our lives and broadened our minds.

On this day in 1950, Robert Schuman declared, “World peace cannot be safeguarded without the making of creative efforts proportionate to the dangers which threaten it”.

Today, as the world faces unprecedented dangers, including climate change, threats of nuclear proliferation and increasing conflict, we must pool our creative efforts with fresh energy and enthusiasm. The EU isn’t perfect, so we must join forces to improve it – not quit when the going gets tough.”

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The UK’s 2016 EU Referendum, where 51.9% voted to leave the EU but 48.1% voted to stay, started a process that will transform Britain’s relationship with the rest of Europe. Greens campaigned strongly to remain in the EU and we continue to believe the UK is best served by being an EU member.  Much has already been said about the effect of Brexit on trade – but the focus has often been one of wishful thinking, with scant regard for some of the underlying issues, including the constraints on Britain ‘going it alone’ in trade terms.

UK Trade After the Brexit vote brings together perspectives from elected Greens, academics, campaigners and trade unions, from the UK, EU and internationally.

The publication considers some of the most pressing questions around trade and Brexit, including:

• Would countries put a trade deal with the UK ahead of a deal with the EU, and if so, at what cost?
• What are the prospects for UK trade deals with countries such as India, Australia and the US, and what might the costs and impacts be? What would the UK need to offer in return?
• What impacts could such deals have on specific areas like agriculture, services, and the environment?
• How far would a UK-US trade deal amount to a powershift to multinational companies rather than ‘taking back control’?
• Why is CETA a particularly bad model for future UK-EU trade relations?
• What will happen to the trade deals we currently have with 50+ countries, which arise from our EU membership?

Contributions from Jean Lambert MEP, Prof. Alan Winters, Molly Scott Cato MEP, Keith Taylor MEP, Dr Geenthajali Nataraj, Senator Peter Whish-Wilson (Australian Senate), Rosa Crawford (TUC), Melinda St. Louis (Global Trade Watch) and Ska Keller MEP.

Read/download the publication here.

Paper copies are available on request.

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Today is Europe Day. Held on 9^th May every year Europe Day celebrates peace and unity in Europe. This year, with a referendum on the UK’s membership of the European Union just over a month away, it is particularly timely to remember the origins of this commemoration.

The date marks the anniversary of the historical ‘Schuman declaration‘ and the beginnings of what has become the European Union. In a speech in Paris in 1950 the French Foreign Minister of the time – Robert Schuman – set out a visions for economic co-operation as the basis for peace in Europe after the devastation of two World Wars. He said:

“World peace cannot be safeguarded without the making of creative efforts proportionate to the dangers which threaten it.

“The contribution which an organised and living Europe can bring to civilisation is indispensable to the maintenance of peaceful relations.”

Based on this vision European governments determined to make war not merely unthinkable, but materially impossible.

The EU has developed over time and is now about more than managing production. The current treaty contains this international vision of:

“reinforcing the European identity and its independence in order to promote peace, security and progress in Europe and in the world”.

Economic cooperation is still important. However, there are many of us who feel that this has become too much an end in itself, to the exclusion of other aims, and not as a means to a peaceful future. 66 years on from Shuman’s declaration the EU must do more to reduce inequalities, promote human rights and live within the environmental limits of the planet – a peaceful future depends on these.

The EU has actively worked for peace within Europe and beyond its borders, and continues to do so. In recent months, The EU was responsible for negotiating a breakthrough in Iran’s nuclear talks, something the US could not have achieved on its own. A European Parliament vote for an end of arms sales to Saudi Arabia is a further example.

Peace is a condition achieved through determination and wilful action, not through the threat of military might. The EU’s democratic nations working together can and do achieve this.

This year more than any other we would be wise to remind ourselves of the legacy of peace and prosperity the architects of the EU have left us and defend it by remaining a part of the EU.

I sometimes feel that some people in the UK still believe in a form of ‘splendid isolation’ and fail to recognise that there always were alliances and we are even more connected in today’s world.

Europe Day is an opportunity for reflection about the role of the EU in the world and what the UK’s place in that is and could be. This year, we should also consider whether stepping away from possibly the most progressive grouping of states in the modern world (despite all its difficulties) is a wise thing to do.

Europe Day reminds us that the EU was founded on the basis of being a project for peace between the countries and peoples of Europe and in the world. I believe that is a vision worth voting for. I shall vote ‘Remain’ on June 23rd.

by Jean Lambert

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European Parliament calls for safe routes for refugees

Green MEPs today spoke out against the deal between the European Union and Turkey which is seeing asylum-seekers forcibly returned from Greek islands to Turkey in a violation of their human rights.

The condemnation of the deal comes one day after the European Parliament voted for a resolution calling for legal and safe routes for refugees and asylum seekers to enter Europe.

Jean Lambert MEP and her fellow Green MEPs backed the call for a radical overhaul of the EU asylum system in light of its ongoing failure to deal with and assist the numbers of people arriving.

They called for changes to ensure fairness and shared responsibility, solidarity and swift, effective processing of individual applications to relieve the pressure on countries like Greece and Italy.

Jean Lambert, Green MEP for London and the Greens’ migration spokesperson, commented: “The deportation deal with Turkey is an ineffective, kneejerk reaction to the refugee situation and goes against human rights and international law. Turkey is already coping with over two million refugees and its government is under increasing criticism for its ongoing human rights abuses. People fleeing conflict and killing must be made safe.

“I am happy that the Parliament has got behind a new shared approach to asylum. With no end in sight to the misery and suffering we’re witnessing in the Mediterranean, EU member states must accept their responsibilities and enter into a permanent and fair system for relocating refugees across EU member states, based on solidarity. More must be done to provide safe routes for people fleeing conflict so they don’t have to risk their lives.

“One important aspect so far overlooked is the wishes and needs of refugees. People must have the right to join family members already in Europe, or to go where they know the language – this is essential for integration and creating hope for the future.” 

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Green MEP Jean Lambert was today joined by London Green Party’s Sian Berry outside City Hall to launch the regional party’s campaign for the UK to remain in the EU. [1]

The party intends to make a positive case for why EU membership is important for London, and will urge Green-minded Londoners to vote to stay in the referendum on 23 June.

In advance of today’s photo-call Jean Lambert said:

“London benefits from being in the EU. We have the freedom to live, work, and travel across the EU’s 27 other member states, and hundreds of thousands of Londoners have benefited from these rights. London is not an insular place, and many of us have links to other European countries. Leaving the EU will threaten these rights and freedoms, and will hurt London economically and culturally.

“EU funding has also directly benefited London. Investing in skills and employment, especially for young people; reducing the energy use of London’s housing and public buildings; investing in education and research; funding projects to address climate change and protect the environment. These are just some of the ways EU money has been used in London.” [2]

Sian Berry added:

“I’m firmly for a vote to stay in Europe. London has hundreds of thousands of EU citizens who contribute to our communities and culture as well as our economy. Like so many of my generation, I’m used to Europe’s countries being united, working together and deciding some things collaboratively at a European level.

“One of the reasons we have such appalling air pollution in our city is that we’ve failed to take action on a European directive we’ve signed up to – and obeying that directive will be part of the solution. Certainly I want the EU to be more democratic and more accountable to all the citizens of Europe, but I don’t understand the desire to leave at all.”

ENDS

Notes

1. Location: Outside City Hall at Potters Fields.

2. The EU Youth Employment Initiative included £35.7 million for Inner London. Other funding streams benefiting London include: European Structural and Investment Funds (skills and employment); Erasmus (education); Horizon 2020 (research); ELENA (energy saving); LIFE (climate and environment).

3. For further info see @LondonGreenerIN, #GreenerIN and GreensForEurope.org

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New EU rules setting out safeguards for children suspected or accused in criminal proceedings were adopted by the European Parliament today. Commenting after the vote, Green civil liberties spokesperson Jean Lambert MEP said:

“This new EU legislation is a welcome step forward in ensuring children are afforded a guaranteed level of protection in criminal proceedings across the EU. The new law sets out basic procedural rights for children, which should be guaranteed across Europe, and aims to ensure the best interests of the child are at the forefront.

“It was high time to set out common rights for children across Europe and address the problematic patchwork of national rules that has existed until now. The new law sets out basic minimum standards. The detention of children who are suspected or accused should be used as a last resort and it should be ensured that children are detained separately from adults. They should have access to a doctor and the right to an individual assessment. Importantly, they will also have the right to be communicated with in a language adapted to their needs, as well as to be accompanied by the holder of parental responsibility during the proceedings.

“While the new law represents a major improvement overall, it is disappointing that it limits the right for children to be assisted by a lawyer in certain cases. This is essentially left up to member states to decide and a lawyer can be refused if the crime is not serious or the investigation could be affected.”

ENDS

A version of this press release also appears on the Greens-EFA website at www.greens-efa.eu/legal-rights-15319.html

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Greens want progressive, radical change. At national level, we want Westminster elections to become truly representative, an end to practices favouring tradition over democracy and accountability, like the unelected House of Lords, and action to tackle the unacceptable influence of big business over UK politics. We want a UK Government with a different set of priorities for Britain. But we don’t argue for abolishing national government in Westminster.

Similarly, at European level we are arguing for a Green vision of the EU. UK Green MEPs want to continue to work with other Green MEPs elected to the European Parliament from across the EU, currently making a political group of around 50. We are working together to build a people-centred Europe – greener, more democratic, and which, crucially, constrains powerful global corporations and protects our rights. In particular, economic activity must serve society and not compromise the environment, which means the free-market must be challenged. So at European level Greens want stronger EU social and environmental standards and for these to be given primacy above competition and the single market.

Greens also recognise the potential for the EU to have a greater positive impact internationally, in terms of climate action, human rights, peace and global justice. We make no apology for having a profoundly different vision for Europe and the UK’s role in it, compared to the Government and other political voices in the UK. We reject the Eurosceptic claim that the EU is ‘unreformable’. The EU is no more unreformable than Westminster, and leaving doesn’t bring our vision of Europe any closer. The opportunity to make this vision real is only possible if we remain in the EU!

The green vision:

• Social and environmental standards to be given primacy over single market rules and competitiveness.

• EU action against the dominance of powerful corporations [corporate influence should be tackled with a powerful legally-binding EU lobby register and EU measures to end the ‘revolving door’ between the private sector and public institutions] and an end to trade deals like TTIP which allow corporate interests to compromise democracy.

• A social Europe, with stronger, not weaker, protection of our rights, enabling UK and other EU citizens to travel, study, work, live and retire in other EU member states.

• An EU that promotes equality and diversity.

• More ambitious EU environmental protection and climate action, for example to achieve 100% renewable energy by at least 2050.

• Stronger EU action on banking regulation and tax justice including an EU-wide financial transaction tax, tougher EU rules to close tax loopholes and tackle tax fraud and evasion.

• An EU that protects and fosters small-scale economic activity and local/regional distinctiveness.

• A Europe that is a greater force for good in the world, promoting peace, human rights and justice – internationally and within the EU.

• A citizens’ Europe with greater democracy – voting at 16, more involvement of national parliaments, a stronger European Citizens’ Initiative, and introduction of EU-wide referenda.

• A stronger, more effective European Parliament.

Five ways to strengthen the European Parliament:

The European Parliament is elected by proportional representation across the whole EU and has a strong democratic mandate. It needs greater powers relative to the other EU institutions, including in these five areas:

1. the power to initiate legislation [currently this is limited to the Commission].

2. the power to amend and veto the Commission’s work programme and to appoint, censure and dismiss individual Commissioners.

3. the right for European Parliament committees to demand papers and testimony from the Council and the Commission.

4. appointment and scrutiny powers over the European Central Bank.

5. the right for the European Parliament to decide its own seat [Green MEPs have led calls to end the Parliament’s rotation between Brussels and Strasbourg. The European Parliament has repeatedly called for a single seat, but is not empowered to enact this. The decision remains with the Member States via the European Council and requires all Member States to agree].

–

This article can be found in the report, Why-Greens-Say-Yes-To-Europe, recently published by UK Green MEPs.

#GreenerIN

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The Syriza Government, the Greek Greens and most other Greek progressives do not want their country to leave the EU or the Eurozone. A central objective of Syriza has been to retain Greece’s Eurozone and EU membership. Our solidarity with Greece must keep this in mind.

The Euro did not cause the Greek debt crisis. In fact the first EU country to receive economic bail-outs following the 2008 global financial crisis was Latvia, which was then outside the Eurozone.

The EU is an extremely rich economic region, with higher total GDP than either the US or China. It has the potential to redistribute wealth from rich to poor and to foster solidarity between the peoples of Europe. The people of Greece and other lower income EU Member States should be the beneficiaries of a successful, effective EU. As one of the EU’s richest countries, we want the UK to stay in the EU and work towards these goals. Even if the current UK Government doesn’t share these objectives or priorities today, that’s no reason to argue for the UK to leave.

Greens wholeheartedly oppose the austerity foisted upon Greece, which has been inhumane and counterproductive. But the underlying force at work is the relationship between creditors and debtor, and Greece’s creditors – which includes the UK Government and other national governments, not just EU-level institutions – have been too eager to extract maximum short-term economic return regardless of human cost and longer-term impacts.

As with other indebted countries, writing off unpayable debts and investing in essential services and infrastructure can offer the best solutions in terms of rebuilding an economy and providing the most humanitarian outcome. Green MEPs have argued that Greece needs a major investment plan to counter the recessionary and self-defeating austerity measures demanded by the creditors (see www.greens-efa.eu/eurogroupgreece-14258.html).

A stable Greece on the way to genuine recovery is in the interests of Europe, both economically and politically.

Social protection and solidarity are central principles of the EU. They form part of a vision of the EU as Social Europe, a peoples’ Europe. Green MEPs have argued that the EU has an important role and duty in combating austerity and EU rules governing the single currency should fit with these objectives. In accordance with its core principles, the EU has the potential to help deliver a just outcome for Greece, which must look beyond the narrow, short-term interests of her creditors.

—

This article can be found in the report, Why-Greens-Say-Yes-To-Europe, recently published by UK Green MEPs.

#GreenerIN

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Greens have been at the forefront of campaigns to oppose TTIP, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. Its proponents claim the agreement will ‘unlock’ EU-US trade potential by getting rid of so-called ‘barriers to trade’. However, these are often regulations which protect social, environmental and labour standards or the provision of health and other public services. The negative impacts of TTIP are likely to be wide-ranging, and include animal welfare, GMOs, generic medicine, digital rights, financial regulation and much more. There is particular concern over the impact on jobs (see http://www.jeanlambertmep.org.uk/2015/01/30/whats-wrong-ttip-voices-opposing-eu-us-trade-agreement/).

So is TTIP a good reason for leaving the EU? We say no.

TTIP is happening because it has political support amongst governments and political leaders across the EU and US. Progressing TTIP was a UK General Election manifesto pledge of Cameron’s Tories. They want to take Britain into TTIP regardless of whether we are inside or outside the EU. Free-market Eurosceptics have said they want Britain to negotiate with the US as equal partners in a UK-US trade deal. That is extremely unlikely to work in the UK’s economic favour. If TTIP goes ahead it is more likely that a UK outside the EU would ask to join TTIP as an additional signatory after the deal is completed. Once outside the EU, UK citizens will have less opportunity to work with citizens from across Europe to defeat TTIP. The EU-wide anti-TTIP movement has grown in recent years, with over 3.3 million EU citizens signing a European Initiative to stop it. This movement will be weakened by a UK exit, inevitably putting UK anti-TTIP campaigners, such as trade justice activists, at the margins on the issue.

TTIP is bad, but it is important not to forget the thousands of other trade and investment agreements which are agreed bi-laterally between nation states, including the UK. A proposed UK trade deal with Ethiopia and a recent deal with Colombia show the UK Government is happy to sign up to other damaging trade deals. Added together the impacts of such agreements are arguably as damaging as TTIP, if not more so.

TTIP’s Investor-State Dispute Settlement mechanism is rightly maligned. ISDS lets investors sue governments in private arbitration tribunals outside national court legal systems, and can exert a ‘chilling effect’ which undermines the introduction of progressive legislation. There is currently an ongoing battle over its inclusion in TTIP, but ISDS mechanisms have been routinely included in existing trade agreements, including many agreed by the UK. Globally, over 500 ISDS cases are known to have been brought as a result of these agreements (Traidcraft Exchange, 2015, International Investment Agreements Under Scrutiny).

The problems with ISDS go far beyond TTIP or the EU, and Greens, like other trade justice campaigners, want ISDS stripped from all trade agreements, not just TTIP.

The secrecy of the TTIP negotiations is opposed by Greens and those concerned about transparency and trade justice, but this is also a feature of other trade negotiations. Transparency in trade deal negotiations needs addressing across the board, and not just in TTIP or those other trade deals involving the EU.

In fact, on both ISDS and transparency in TTIP we have seen progress at EU level, following the concerted efforts of engaged MEPs, campaigners and a better informed public. ISDS is now seriously contested and could get taken out of the agreement, and we have seen progress on disclosure and access to documents.

Greens want trade justice in all trade agreements. This also means safeguarding democracy and the rule of law. As well as stopping damaging agreements, we want these objectives applied to all trade negotiations, whether involving the EU or not.

These political battles won’t be advanced by the UK leaving the EU. The lesson from TTIP, and the powerful transnational corporations it will benefit, is that we need to stand firmly together to tackle the underlying issues, not become divided and leave the fight to others.

—

This article can be found in the report, Why-Greens-Say-Yes-To-Europe, recently published by UK Green MEPs.

#GreenerIN

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