​London’s Green MEP, Jean Lambert, is celebrating how freedom of movement benefits Londoners and is a positive thing for life in the city, as the country counts down to the referendum on European Union membership on June 23.

Over the remaining five weeks of its campaign for the UK to Remain in the EU, [1] the Green Party will be spelling out the many benefits of EU freedom of movement rules which mean British citizens can easily live, work, study, and retire abroad, as well as the ways EU citizens enhance life in Britain. These benefits are particularly apparent in the capital which has more residents from other EU countries than any other part of the UK and i​s rightly seen as a welcoming city.

Around one third of non-UK EU citizens based in Britain live in inner and outer London. [2] Londoners’ lives are already intertwined with other Europeans. Data obtained by the Green Party shows that 6 in every 100 officially recorded couples in London – more than 100,000 in total – are made up of a British national in a relationship with someone of another EU nationality. [3]

Jean Lambert, MEP for London and Greens’ migration spokesperson said:

“Freedom of movement is absolutely something to be celebrated. Londoners live alongside people from every other EU country and many more besides, and Londoners are among the most pro-European people in the country. Life is enhanced by living alongside people from other countries. [4]

“Freedom of movement works two-ways – something those who would like us to isolate ourselves from our European neighbours are happy to ignore. Many Brits choose to work, study or retire abroad, as is their current right, and a decision to leave the European Union would cast into doubt our continued ability to exercise this right.

“EU citizens are contributing to our economy and our society – financially and culturally. I am grateful to all the people from the EU working in our care homes, hospitals and other public services and I am happy that Brits can experience life elsewhere in Europe. 

“As the Green Party we reject the accusations and fear-mongering which is characterising the debate on our future in the EU far too much. We don’t deny that the EU is in need of reform but we have a positive vision for the future of Europe, which includes the right of EU citizens to move easily between countries, and we are passionate about Remaining in the EU on June 23^rd.”

The party’s Greens for a Better Europe campaign is highlighting the fact that more than one million British-born people are living elsewhere in the EU. These include more than 300,000 people in Spain and nearly 200,000 in France. [5] More than 10,000 students study at European universities every year and can benefit from EU funding via the Erasmus student scheme [6].

They are also pointing to research published last week by London School of Economics [2] which proved that EU migrants make an important net contribution to the UK economy, paying more in taxes than they take out.

Notes:

[1] On 14 March, 2016, the party launched its own, distinct ‘Greens for a Better Europe’ campaign for the UK to remain in the EU:

[2] About a third of EU immigrants live in London, compared with only 11% of the UK-born.

[3] There are 102,400 couples living in London with one EU and one UK national, out of a total of 1,771,200 couples recorded in the city in total.

[4] London contains 5 of the most Europhile areas in the UK – Lambeth, Camden, Southwark, Hackney, and Brent.

[5] Brits abroad: how many people from the UK live in other EU countries?

[6] http://www.go.international.ac.uk/content/erasmus-figures​

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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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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.

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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.

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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 UK Green MEPs, Jean Lambert, Molly Scott Cato and Keith Taylor, have published a short report setting out the Green case for why the UK should remain in the European Union.

The publication includes:

• An explanation of why Greens want the UK to remain part of the EU.
• A perspective from each MEP, focusing on their areas of work in the European Parliament and their constituencies.
• A 10-point Green Vision for the European Union, including the changes Greens want to make in Brussels.
• Why opposing TTIP and austerity in Greece shouldn’t make you a Eurosceptic.

Why Greens Say Yes To Europe can be downloaded here.

Hard copies are available from Jean’s London office on request, or from the other UK Green MEPs.

#GreenerIN

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Following the announcement that the UK referendum on EU membership will be held on 23 June, Jean Lambert, London’s Green MEP said:

“Now that Cameron’s negotiations are over and the referendum date is set, the real debate on Europe can begin. I will be campaigning for the UK to remain a member of the European Union. The benefits of EU membership and the value of the UK staying in are as strong as ever.

“The challenges of the twenty-first century are best met when we work together for the benefit of our continent as a whole. The European Union is about working in partnership for the common good.

“The EU is, of course, far from perfect – just like Westminster and other political institutions. But that isn’t a good enough reason to leave. We need to be part of the European Union in order to shape it.

“The European Union has already led the way on protecting our rights, safeguarding the environment, taking climate action, regulating corporations and global finance, and delivering peace. Greens believe the EU can and should do much more on all these fronts.

“We also need to acknowledge the freedoms the EU gives us – to work, live, study or retire in other countries across the continent. Millions of Brits benefit from these freedoms which EU membership bestows and protects.”

ENDS

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Responding to the EU summit and David Cameron’s negotiations, Jean Lambert, London’s Green MEP said:

“The really important question is whether the UK remains in the EU. The benefits of EU membership and the value of the UK staying in are as strong as ever.

“Greens have been working for a European Union which protects rights, leads on the environmental and climate action, regulates corporations and global finance, and is a greater positive force for peace and justice.

“But for that to be possible we must continue to be part of it.

“Regardless of Cameron’s negotiations, Greens will continue to argue that the UK should remain in the European Union.”

ENDS

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Ahead of David Cameron’s final negotiations on a deal with European leaders, Greens have reiterated their commitment to EU membership and reform, but for a different kind of Europe based on protection of rights, being a world-leader on environmental protection, regulating corporations and global finance, and being a positive force for peace and justice.

Keith Taylor, Green MEP for the South East, and Green Party speaker on animals, said:

“Greens want to stay in the European Union because we believe that by working together we can better face the challenges of the twenty first century. The European Union is about working in partnership for the common good for our continent as a whole. The EU is a beacon to the rest of the world on standards of environmental protection, animal welfare and employment rights.

“Despite what David Cameron might say these things are not bureaucratic hurdles challenging competitiveness – they help to create a level playing field for businesses and, crucially, a society founded on respect for its citizens and the environment.”

Jean Lambert, Green MEP for London and Green Party speaker on migration, said:

“Greens support reform but will not support moves to undermine the principle of equal treatment. We want to reduce inequalities within and between our countries – not only within the EU but globally – so that people have a decent standard of living within the planet’s limits.”

Greens have also criticised Mr Cameron for attempting to set different rules to the rest of the EU for the UKs financial industry. The Prime Minister has reportedly sought to enable the UK to ‘go solo’ on financial regulation [1].

Molly Scott Cato, Green MEP for the South West and economics and finance speaker for the Green Party, said:

“I agree we need protection for non-Eurozone countries but this must not mean special privileged carve outs for the City on important EU financial regulation. Greens see the power exercised by multinational corporations and the finance sector as one of the main blocks to building a better Europe. In a globalized world where corporations operate across national boundaries and capital crosses borders freely we need international rules to keep financial interests in check and to ensure that companies pay their taxes so that we can fund public services.”

ENDS

Notes:

[1] http://www.politico.eu/article/the-french-confection-get-ready-for-summit-fudge-on-eurozone-rules-david-cameron-francois-hollande-brexit-eu-referendum-uk-france/

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Responding to today’s letter to the Prime Minister and Members of the European Council from President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, Jean Lambert said:

“I fervently oppose the possibilities for restricting access to in work benefits for four years for EU nationals working in the UK, who have been proved to be net contributors to the UK economy – the evidence simply does not exist that there is widespread or systematic abuse of the UK’s benefits system by EU nationals and I challenge the UK Government to publish the data to prove its case. Reducing the future of the UK’s position in the EU to a debate around in work benefits for EU nationals is nothing short of pathetic and will have many negative repercussions for our reputation within the EU. However, now that David Cameron thinks he has won the argument and has a solution to an almost non-existent ‘problem’ I hope that we can now move on to debate the questions which really matter both for the UK and the EU as a whole.

“Today the European Parliament has discussed some of the real pressing issues we are facing such as how we can work with our European neighbours, and globally to humanely deal with the biggest movement of people since the end of the second world war. MEPs also voted today to oppose any revision of the Birds and Habitats Directives and reinforce the EU’s central role defending wildlife and nature in the UK. The EU is not perfect, but is essential for tackling issues which individual countries cannot solve alone and I will be arguing for the UK to remain a strong and positive force within it.”

ENDS

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