David Martin's EU Tribune

Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament today announced that they will push for the elimination of price differences between domestic and European calls within the 27 EU countries. At a meeting in Brussels we unanimously agreed that citizens are paying huge amounts of money when they make or receive a call abroad, not to [...]

On Thursday (15th December 2011) MEPs (Members of the European Parliament) will have an excellent opportunity to strike a blow against child slavery. There will be a vote in the European Parliament (EP) in Strasbourg on the International Trade Committee (INTA) Report on the ‘EC – Uzbekistan Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA)’, which could have [...]

Last week a significant meeting was held at the European Parliament Brussels. The meeting was a seminar held between The Socialist & Democratic (S&D) Group and trade union leaders from France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain, as well as ETUC secretary-general Bernadette Ségol, on the future of collective bargaining. Participants also included European [...]

MEPs will have a busy time in our final session of 2011. First of we will have to review the disastrous December European Council where UK Prime Minister David Cameron jeopardised the UK future in the European Union (EU). We will then assess the Polish Presidency which comes to an end on 01 January 2012 [...]

Just prior to the 2010 general election, the UK Labour Government passed a ground-breaking law to clip the wings of predatory Vulture Funds. The UK law enforces internationally agreed relief for the most impoverished countries. Unfortunately, due to a technicality, this law did not apply to Jresey. Vulture capitalists run Vulture Funds to make profit [...]

The European Parliament and European Commission have joined forces to call on banks to ensure this year’s bonus round complies with EU rules agreed by the 27 finance ministers in November 2010. Commissioner Michel Barnier (Europe’s financial services Commissioner) is putting pressure on the banks to prioritise their stability and protect savers and taxpayers’ funds, [...]

First off we are tackling modern slavery. The European Parliamentary Labour Party and the Socialist and Democrat Group stand strongly against forced labour and child labour. In May I, along with many colleagues in the European Parliament, wrote to Trade Commissioner Karel de Gucht calling on the European Union to open an investigation into forced [...]

I remember when this movement that was started by the Labour controlled Edinburgh District Council’s Women’s Committee in November 1992. Now nearly 20 years later Amnesty International has urged the European Union (EU) and all members of the Council of Europe to sign and ratify the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence [...]