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| ===Opposition to party re-grouping and expulsion=== | ===Opposition to party re-grouping and expulsion=== | ||
| As a long time enthusiast for European integration he was opposed to ]'s decision to leave the centre-right ] group. However, in order to get reelected he signed Dacid Cameron's pledge to join a new anti federalist group. Despite this once elected he then claimed the ], were a grouping of right-wing populist and extremist parties<ref> ''Daily Telegraph'' ]</ref>. He then stood against the ECR's candidate for Vice President and won giing him a large travel budget. Commenting after his re-election as Vice-President of the European Parliament (14 July 2009), McMillan-Scott, the first ever to to break the group system of nominations, said: "The public want to see transparency and real democracy among their parliamentarians, in Brussels or Westminster. 'Standing as an independent candidate - and for the values of democracy and human rights which I have worked through the EU to promote worldwide - I have made a start. Rather than withdrawing the whip, David Cameron should be pleased that a Tory is still at the top in Europe." The decision to stand for the election resulted in the Polish ECR MEP ]'s failure to be elected as a vice-president; McMillan-Scott was then expelled from the Conservative Party and there were rumours that he might join the EPP group as an independent MEP.<ref>http://euobserver.com/9/28457/?rk=1</ref> Michal Kaminsky has threatened to sue him for liable. | As a long time enthusiast for European integration he was opposed to ]'s decision to leave the centre-right ] group. However, in order to get reelected he signed Dacid Cameron's pledge to join a new anti federalist group. Despite this once elected he then claimed the ], were a grouping of right-wing populist and extremist parties<ref> ''Daily Telegraph'' ]</ref>. He then stood against the ECR's candidate for Vice President and won giing him a large travel budget. Commenting after his re-election as Vice-President of the European Parliament (14 July 2009), McMillan-Scott, the first ever to to break the group system of nominations, said: "The public want to see transparency and real democracy among their parliamentarians, in Brussels or Westminster. 'Standing as an independent candidate - and for the values of democracy and human rights which I have worked through the EU to promote worldwide - I have made a start. Rather than withdrawing the whip, David Cameron should be pleased that a Tory is still at the top in Europe." The decision to stand for the election resulted in the Polish ECR MEP ]'s failure to be elected as a vice-president; McMillan-Scott was then expelled from the Conservative Party and there were rumours that he might join the EPP group as an independent MEP. This would result in him being expelled from the Conservative Party.<ref>http://euobserver.com/9/28457/?rk=1</ref> Michal Kaminsky has threatened to sue him for liable. | ||
| ==Personal Life== | ==Personal Life== | ||
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| Edward McMillan-ScottMEP | |
|---|---|
| Member of the European Parliament for Yorkshire and the Humber | |
| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office 10 June 1999 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1949-08-15) 15 August 1949 (age 75) |
| Nationality | British |
| Political party | Independent |
Edward H. C. McMillan-Scott (born August 15, 1949, Cambridge) is a British politician, Member of the European Parliament for the Yorkshire and the Humber region who was elected for the Conservative Party.
European Parliament
He was the MEP for York from 1984 to 1994, MEP for North Yorkshire from 1994 to 1999, and MEP for Yorkshire and the Humber from 1999 onwards.
The Conservative Party withdrew the whip from him in 2009 over opposition to his party group's candidate for Vice-President of the European Parliament.
Roles and Responsibilities
McMillan-Scott was leader of the Conservative MEPs between 1997 and 2001.
On 23 July 2004 he was elected fourth of the 14 Vice-Presidents of the European Parliament. He was re-elected a Vice-President in 2007.
McMillan-Scott's responsibilities as Vice-President include relations with national EU parliaments and the Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly, which brings together 240 MPs from the EU, North Africa and the Middle East.
He was elected chairman of the European Parliament's largest-ever election observer missions, 30 MEPs, to Palestine in January 2005 and January 2006 for the presidential and parliamentary elections respectively.
He wrote a ground-breaking report for the European Parliament's foreign affairs committee on a new EU/China strategy in 1997. After a visit to Beijing in May 2006, all the Chinese with whom he had contact - reformists, ex-prisoners of conscience, dissidents - were arrested, imprisoned and in some cases tortured. His campaign aimed at a political boycott of the August 2008 Beijing Olympic Games was his response. In the event, the Presidents of the European Parliament and European Commission boycotted, as did the EU's external affairs Commissioner, apart from the Canadian and New Zealand premiers, Prince Charles and famously, Steven Spielberg.
He is an honorary life member of the Tory Reform Group.
Campaigning
He is founder of the European Democracy Initiative, with a budget of some €140 million which was originally aimed at the transformation of the ex-Soviet bloc and which he is now directing towards the reforming Arab world and 'difficult' countries such as China, Cuba and Russia.
He campaigns for improved children's rights across the EU and has successfully dealt with a number of cross-frontier child abduction cases. He is currently campaigning for an EU-wide missing child alert with Kate and Gerry McCann, parents of missing Madeleine. A majority of MEPs supported a resolution to this effect, sponsored in the summer of 2008 by McMillan-Scott.. In the USA, the Department of Justice's Amber Alert has recovered 400 abducted children since 2003, 80% within the crucial first 72 hours. France has an identical system but other countries, including the UK, rely on a patchwork of volunteers and charities.
His 'Golden Fleece' campaign against fraud and malpractice in the Costa villa and timeshare market won wide support and both national and EU consumer laws. He is currently campaigning for more secure property rights in the EU's neighbourhood, as buyers move into the Balkans, Turkey and North Africa, where the legal framework is insecure.
Opposition to party re-grouping and expulsion
As a long time enthusiast for European integration he was opposed to David Cameron's decision to leave the centre-right EPP-ED group. However, in order to get reelected he signed Dacid Cameron's pledge to join a new anti federalist group. Despite this once elected he then claimed the European Conservatives and Reformists, were a grouping of right-wing populist and extremist parties. He then stood against the ECR's candidate for Vice President and won giing him a large travel budget. Commenting after his re-election as Vice-President of the European Parliament (14 July 2009), McMillan-Scott, the first ever to to break the group system of nominations, said: "The public want to see transparency and real democracy among their parliamentarians, in Brussels or Westminster. 'Standing as an independent candidate - and for the values of democracy and human rights which I have worked through the EU to promote worldwide - I have made a start. Rather than withdrawing the whip, David Cameron should be pleased that a Tory is still at the top in Europe." The decision to stand for the election resulted in the Polish ECR MEP Michał Kamiński's failure to be elected as a vice-president; McMillan-Scott was then expelled from the Conservative Party and there were rumours that he might join the EPP group as an independent MEP. This would result in him being expelled from the Conservative Party. Michal Kaminsky has threatened to sue him for liable.
Personal Life
He speaks French, Italian, some German and Spanish. He is married to Henrietta, a member of the Law Society's Children's Panel: they have two daughters.
References
- http://www.BoycottBeijing.eu
- TRG about people, accessed 17 July
- MEP voices 'real concern' over new European grouping Daily Telegraph 2009-06-25
- http://euobserver.com/9/28457/?rk=1