MEPs reply

MEPs and their staff have been busy emailing Progressio campaigners. Here are some we’ve seen. First up, a very positive Liberal Democrat Chris Davies, an MEP for the North West:

Thanks for your email.
 
I've been pushing for it to become an offence to import timber from unauthorised sources for more than 5 years, and last week we got agreement between the European Parliament negotiators and the European Council to do just this.
 
A bit of good news for once.

Regards
 
Chris Davies

And a Conservative MEP, again from the North West, is planning on supporting the legislation. Sajjad Karim, we salute you!

Thank you for your email regarding the vote on the illegally logged timber during the Strasbourg session in 5 July.

I have been working with Julie Girling MEP, who has personally been part of the European Parliament Environment Committee team negotiating with the Council and the Commission on illegally logged timber.

We are very pleased with the outcome of these negotiations which send a strong message that the EU will not tolerate illegal activities which have such devastating environmental and economic consequences. Conservative MEPs have supported this stance throughout the legislative process and will of course be voting in favour in July.

Your Sincerely,

Sajjad H. Karim MEP

And Labour MEP Brian Simpson, also in the North West, is also hoping to vote for the legislation:

Thank you for your email and I fully share your concerns about the terrible environmental and social consequences of illegal logging.
 
On Tuesday last week, the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers (where national governments sit) reached an agreement on a new law to stop illegally logged wood from being sold in the EU. This is the culmination of two years of work at EU level. The final agreement still needs to be approved in a plenary vote of the European Parliament in July. However, Labour MEPs in the European Parliament's Environment committee who have been leading on this issue are happy with the final agreement, which is much stronger than the version originally proposed by the Council of Ministers.
 
At the insistence of the European Parliament, the package includes a prohibition on selling illegally logged wood - which would come into force as early as 2012. This would make it a criminal offence to put illegally logged wood on the market, with those doing so subject to considerable penalties. In addition, companies further down the supply chain would have to carry out appropriate checks, including tracing where the wood they sell was harvested.
 
The EU is one of the biggest markets for illegally logged wood, with over 50% of all illegally logged wood ending up for sale in our single market. As a result, Labour MEPs supported as ambitious an agreement as possible, in the belief that the EU has a responsibility to deter the illegal cutting down of the world's forests.
 
Thank you for writing to me on this important topic.
 
Best wishes,
Brian Simpson MEP

Finally, UKIP respond. Nigel Farage: change your mind!

Thank you for your message, to Nigel Farage, about EU-legislation to proscribe the import, to territories controlled by the EU's member-governments, of "un-certificated" consignments of tropical hardwoods.

Obviously enough, good legislation cannot come from a bad source (the EU) but would this measure be good, even if it was agreed by democratically elected governments?  I think not.

It is essentially a cosmetic exercise, based on highly corruptible paperwork, and offering nothing, but the opportunity of corruption, to producer-countries.  It also precludes better alternatives, by encouraging a self-perpetuating network of underhand dealing. 

On the other hand, for example, South American states have suggested a conservational-development partnership, which would serve the interests of all concerned, and would, therefore, work; but the powers at the WTO (EU and US) will not hear of it, because the great corporations, which control them, would no longer be able to plunder poor countries' resources.

If the presently EU-bound nations recovered their sovereign democracy from the EU - and thus, their seats at the WTO - the story might be very different; but, as a first step to achieving this, a large UKIP-representation in Parliament is needed, and I hope you would support this.

I might also point out that the NGO's, which urge their members to lobby the EU's consultative assembly, are usually funded by the EU, to promote the EU's authority.  "Friends of the Earth Europe", for example, receives a substantial EU-grant.

Please see also http://www.ivc6.com/greenfieldtv/outofcontrol1.html
for our view of the EU's environmental policy, in general.

Yours sincerely,

Andrew S. Reed
Office of Nigel Farage, Brussels

If you have any letters or emails from your MEPs, please post them in the comment box below - you'll have to join our online community first, though.