Politics  

In the European Parliament, Edward McMillan-Scott - seen left chairing a voting session in the 736-Member assembly - is not only a popular Vice-President but also widely respected for his foreign affairs expertise and 'hands-on' approach to democracy and human rights promotion.

However, the majority of his effort has always been focussed on issues which are of direct interest or benefit to his constituents: prosperity and a good environment at home.                                                                                                         

Edward's political career
Although his previous professional experience in London - particularly representing the Falkland Islanders to an international audience - had been in foreign affairs, after his election in 1984 Edward became the European Parliament's first tourism spokesman. About one third of employment in Yorkshire & Humber is in the leisure industry. By 1988 he was the first Euro-MP to attend a meeting of EU ministers - to propose that 1990 should be nominated "European Year of Tourism".

                                       Skipton in springtime>

The European Year of Tourism was successful in putting tourism on the political map,highlighting quality and good value for money.



< The timeshare nightmare ended

From his postbag, he had been following several hundred cases of fraud in the villa and timeshare market, mostly in Spain, Portugal and the Canary Islands. His "Golden Fleece" campaign led to new consumer laws and to the Timeshare Directive, which required a cooling-off period to bring an end to the hard-sell.

Although he had been a regular visitor to the Soviet bloc, often meeting dissidents and reformers, the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 gave him the opportunity to assist in building a 'Europe whole and free'. In his view, the EU should assist the process of democracy, the rule of law, human rights and a free media. The end of communism in Europe>

In 1990 he proposed a European Democracy Fund, and by 1992 the European Parliament had backed his plan. By 1997, the EU Democracy Initiative (EDI) was funding some 1,200 projects across East/Central Europe and beyond. In 1999, he was the first outside politician to visit war-ravaged Serbia: in Belgrade he met independent journalists from Vreme, Oslobodenje and Radio B92, as well as numerous independent NGOs - all being funded by EDI.

In 1997 he was elected Leader of the Conservatives in the European Parliament and played a key role in exposing mismanagement in the European Commission. He was the first to call for heads to roll and in March 1999 the European Commissioners resigned en masse.

The 1999 European election was a high point in the Conservative Party's decade-long decline. Under the slogan "In Europe, not run by Europe", Edward was the first Leader of the MEPs to see their number increase. In fact they doubled to 36.

After 9/11 the world changed. Days later, Edward was the first politician to meet ex-king Zahir Shah of Afghanistan and encourage his return as 'Baba' to a newly democratic Afghanistan.

In 2004, Edward was elected a Vice-President of the European Parliament and was responsible for relations with national parliaments across the EU and relations with the Arab world.  He was re-elected in 2009 after he stood against Polish candidate Michal Kaminski.

After the invasion of Iraq, the American 'freedom' agenda began to make new enemies. Edward was elected to chair the largest-ever parliamentary election observer missions, to the presidential and parliamentary elections in Palestine. As a relation of Lawrence of Arabia he has always been interested in democracy for the Arabs: he also believes it is in the interests of his constituents, four of whom became suicide bombers in London in July 2005.

More recently Edward has been looking at the 'democracy backlash' - concerted resistance to reform in countries like China, Cuba, Russia (all of which he has recently visited to talk to reformers). Edward says that the EU should take up the democracy and human rights agenda worldwide more forcefully.