Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
EU REFERENDUM<br />
Should we stay...<br />
Keith Taylor, Green MEP for South East England<br />
The EU referendum is the biggest political decision<br />
of a generation, and it is drawing ever closer. As a<br />
Green, I wholeheartedly support the campaign for<br />
Britain to remain part of the EU.<br />
It’s difficult to overstate the importance of this referendum<br />
for our future, our society and our environment.<br />
Thanks to the EU we now have a Europewide<br />
cap on bankers’ bonuses, vital environmental<br />
safeguards and social protections while EU standards<br />
on air quality, healthy rivers and clean beaches<br />
are also forcing our Government to clean up its act.<br />
The EU is responsible for around 80% of all environmental<br />
laws in the UK and there are many examples<br />
of positive change. For example, protected<br />
wildlife sites were being lost at a rate of 15% a year<br />
before EU action; now the rate is just 1%.<br />
The EU has led the way in pushing for ambitious<br />
targets to tackle climate change and is playing an<br />
important role in promoting the measures needed<br />
to achieve those targets. The switch to renewable<br />
energy and sustainable transport are prime objectives<br />
for our 50-strong group of Green MEPs.<br />
In the South East, the EU has also delivered and<br />
supported thousands of new jobs, improved the performance<br />
of almost 2,000 businesses, allowed another<br />
2,000 to make financial savings from improved<br />
energy efficiency, helped more than 1,000 small<br />
businesses reduce energy and water usage by 10%,<br />
and reduced the region’s overall CO2 emissions by<br />
more than 40,000 tonnes.<br />
<strong>Lewes</strong> sits proudly in the South Downs, Britain’s<br />
newest National Park, and within it, it is EU funding<br />
that is helping local businesses grow sustainable<br />
tourism, support for local food projects and encouraging<br />
cooperative working with similar projects<br />
across Europe. The EU is also facilitating the work<br />
of the RSPB to protect and improve the wildlife and<br />
habitats that make the South Downs such a wonderfully<br />
vibrant natural treasure.<br />
Despite the beauty that surrounds it, <strong>Lewes</strong> is a<br />
town, like many others in Sussex, beset by air pollution.<br />
EU laws are helping ensure that the issue is<br />
taken seriously by a UK government reluctant to acknowledge<br />
the problem. Practically, EU funding is<br />
also supporting the Sussex Air Quality Partnership<br />
to raise awareness of air quality issues, and evaluate<br />
and implement measures to improve air quality<br />
across the region.<br />
Whether you live in the town or a small village, the<br />
future of the UK’s relationship with Europe will affect<br />
your daily life. Important funding and vital social<br />
and environmental protections are easy to take<br />
for granted, but, with the referendum looming, we<br />
all need to think carefully about how the EU affects<br />
our lives and our country.<br />
I believe the EU is far from perfect, but I know<br />
that while our Government retains its core values<br />
of austerity and a deregulatory agenda, our rights,<br />
freedoms, and environmental standards are under<br />
constant threat and it is our shared EU laws which<br />
are working to protect our future and our planet for<br />
the next generation. @GreenKeithMEP<br />
90
Change language