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Welcome to the website of Andrew Duff MEP - Liberal Democrat Member of the European Parliament for the East of England since 1999

East of England

East of England Region covers the Counties of Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk, and Suffolk, including Bedford borough, Central Bedfordshire, Luton, Peterborough, Southend-on-Sea and Thurrock.

Andrew works all year round representing East of England in the European Parliament. This site is an important part of keeping you up to date with that work. Please also get in touch with your questions and enquiries.

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Recent updates

  • Document: Feb 8, 2012
    886.44 KiB drawing or desktop publishing document

    We the undersigned citizens and associations of the European Union petition the European Parliament as follows:

    Alarmed at the continuing financial instability and economic difficulties across Europe,

    Noting that the new intergovernmental treaty will contribute to the strengthening of fiscal discipline but does not address the problem of sovereign debt,

    Call on the European Parliament to use its powers under Article 48(2) of the Treaty on European Union to initiate the formation of a fiscal union in which national debt is issued in the form of Eurobonds backed by mutual guarantee of the eurozone states;

    Insist that such fiscal solidarity needs a common budgetary policy run by a federal economic government which is democratically accountable to the European Parliament and subject to the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice;

    Strongly support the use of enhanced cooperation to complete the single market and to undertake structural reforms aimed at raising competitiveness and employment;

    Urge the Parliament to draw up a comprehensive agenda for a new constitutional Convention charged with making the changes needed to create the fiscal union, reform the EU's financial system and restore market and democratic confidence in the future of the European Union.

  • Article: Feb 7, 2012

    Following the agreement on the fiscal treaty by the heads of government of 25 member states, the heads of the three leading pro-Europe organisations have petitioned the European Parliament.

    The petition by the Presidents of the Union of European Federalists (UEF), the Young European Federalists (JEF-Europe) and the European Movement International (EMI) asks the European Parliament to use its newLisbontreaty powers to initiate a further revision of the European Union treaties with the objective of creating a full fiscal union with a reformed financial system.

  • Article: Feb 6, 2012

    'Europe is nearing its federal moment - the time to decide on whether it wishes to become more united or not. The growth of the federal movement in Lithuania is therefore greatly to be welcomed'- he said.

    On 3 February Mr Andrew Duff, the president of Union of European Federalists (UEF), attended the constitutive meeting of a branch of UEF in Lithuania. The meeting, which took place in the Lithuanian parliament, was widely covered by the national media and was attended by a large group of the organization?s founders, among which there are a number of MPs, academics and other well-known figures.

  • Article: Jan 31, 2012

    Reacting to the European Council Conclusions on Growth this evening, Guy Verhofstadt,
    President of the ALDE Group
    in the European Parliament said:

    "EU leaders have failed in the only area where they could have made concrete progress today. Instead of decisive action they again chose procrastination. After 40 years of waiting, an agreement was found last year on a European patent but we still have to wait another six months for Member States to agree on the seat of the court causing further delay and costing jobs across the Union at a crucial moment."

  • Article: Jan 26, 2012

    A pan-European constituency with transnational lists for European Parliament elections is among the proposals put forward by the Constitutional Affairs Committee on Thursday. MEPs called on the Council and the Commission to join in negotiations to reform the EU electoral system so as to boost voter turnouts.

  • Article: Jan 26, 2012

    The Parliamentary Committee for Constitutional Affairs (AFCO) today adopted by a large majority (17 votes against 7 and 1 abstention) the report of Andrew DUFF (LibDem, UK) to amend the European electoral system. The symbolic element of the report consists of 25 deputies elected in a single European constituency on the basis of transnational lists.

    Andrew Duff, ALDE coordinator in AFCO, said: "This report is the result of a compromise but a compromise useful for the emergence of an EU-wide democracy. Now every citizen will have two ballots in hand. He can vote for his/her national list and for a transnational list to further strengthen his preference. This being said, I hope his preference will be for pro-Europeans MEPs. This system will also require a review of the allocation of seats in Parliament so that the demographic reality of the EU, calculated by Eurostat before each election, is given more consideration. "

    Guy Verhofstadt, ALDE group leader and member of the AFCO Committee, said: "Now the ball is in the Council's court. The election of transnational deputies clearly meets a need to further politicise the European debate. Europe needs politicians who are fully committed to the emergence of a political union. Member states have to take their responsibility: Do they want to see the emergence of a European participatory democracy or do they prefer to retain a system that promotes confrontation between nation states ? "

    After approval by plenary (possibly in March), the report amending the 1976 Act on Election of Members of European Parliament by universal suffrage will be forwarded to the Council under the relevant TEU Article.

  • Article: Jan 26, 2012

    Today in the Constitutional Affairs Committee a tied vote (11-11) meant that no decision was taken on Andrew Duff's report which recommended that the EU does not agree to the request of the former government of the Czech Republic to add a Protocol on the Charter to the Treaty of Lisbon.

    The Czech Protocol was conceived in 2009 in order to persuade President Klaus to sign the Lisbon treaty. Mr Duff argues that an identical Protocol signed by the UK and Poland is a spurious and futile instrument which sows legal uncertainty and political confusion. He is supported in this view by the European Court of Justice and by the Czech Senate which threatens not to ratify the Czech Protocol.

  • Article: Jan 24, 2012

    In a report to be voted on by the Constitutional Affairs Committee of the European Parliament this Thursday (26 January), MEPs are recommended not to agree to the request of the former government of theCzechRepublicto add a Protocol to the Treaty of Lisbon. The draft Protocol was agreed by the heads of government at the time of the ratification of theLisbontreaty in 2009 in order to persuade President Vaclav Klaus to drop his opposition to the treaty. The Czech Parliament never agreed to the Protocol.

  • Article: Jan 23, 2012

    At meetings in Barcelona on Friday and Saturday (20-21 January), the European federalists took a stance on the emerging intergovernmental treaty on fiscal discipline.

    The UEF took note of the circumstances which led up to the drafting of a new treaty outside the framework of the European Union, but welcomed the fact that the British bluff had been called and their veto by-passed.

  • Article: Jan 18, 2012

    Andrew Duff (ALDE/UK), who is Parliament's rapporteur on electoral reform, has triggered a revision of the Parliament's own rules for its internal elections. He has written to newly-elected President Schulz to propose a change to the Single Transferable Vote (STV).

    In his letter to the President, Duff says:

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