Tagged with European Parliament

TTIP will be a licence for multinationals to profit at all costs

378113A small victory for democracy was recorded at the European Parliament recently when it was announced that a long-awaited debate about the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) was to be postponed.

TTIP is the trade deal being negotiated between the EU and the USA. Its text is secret, known only by the negotiators (including representatives of multinational corporations). Drafts are withheld from MEPs and members of all the European national parliaments (as well as US congressmen and senators). Almost two million Europeans have petitioned against it. Continue reading →

How Labour & Social Democrat MEPs are fighting for the millions who oppose ISDS

No TTIPJude Kirton-Darling, Labour MEP for the North East of England and European Labour Party spokesperson on TTIP writes in response to Professor Keith Ewing and John Hendy QC

In an article published last Friday by the Morning Star and Institute of Employment Rights, Professor Keith Ewing and John Hendy QC accused Labour and Social Democrat MEPs of backing a “shabby” compromise on TTIP: the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership currently being negotiated between the EU and the US. As a Labour MEP for North East England, and the European Labour’s spokesperson on TTIP, I have been closely involved in drafting the European Parliament’s resolution on TTIP. I am firmly opposed to ISDS, and have repeatedly stated that I will oppose TTIP if it threatens our public services, our standards or our democracy. I voted according to these principles last week, and will certainly be guided by them in the vote on the resolution in plenary this Wednesday. In this piece I will attempt to set the record straight in this response to Professor Ewing and John Hendy’s criticism. Continue reading →

Tory right circulates “swivel-eyed” Euro slate

Daniel Hannan, one of the recommended candidatesThose Labour party members among our readers should have received a ballot paper in past month or so to choose candidates for the European parliamentary elections next year. But Labour aren’t the only party running this process at the moment – the Tories too are balloting their members as to who should run.

And for all their talk of Labour’s warring factions in the past few weeks, they’re not exactly a united church themselves. Their hardline-Eurosceptic and Thatcherite division, Conservative Way Forward, has issued a slate of candidates to vote for in the Euro selections: a team which it describes as “solidly Eurosceptic and unabashedly patriotic”. You can’t say they don’t say it like it is. (Or can you?)

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Labour European selections: who are the left candidates? (NOW UPDATED)

Where next?

UPDATE 31/07/13 – last chance to vote today! You can vote online at labour.org.uk/Ballot2013 – and if you can’t find the email with your login details, search “electoral reform” in your inbox.

The ballot is now underway to select Labour’s candidates for the 2014 European parliament selections. Under party rules which make a full re-selection process difficult, all of Labour’s sitting MEPs who are seeking re-election have been re-selected by a “trigger ballot” (sitting MEPs are not required to face the ballot box unless demanded by a large majority CLP meetings in their region).

Yet Labour’s performance in 2009 – the last European elections – was pretty abysmal, and so we can expect to grow our MEPs in number by at least a few. Members have until 31 July to cast their votes either by post or online – some have already received an email with details of how to vote. Below, we’ve listed who activists on the Labour left and the trade unions are supporting in each region. The list is currently incomplete, and we’ll update as we hear from left-wing activists over the next couple of weeks. Feel free to contribute to the debate by commenting below.

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