Welcome
Thank you very much for visiting my web site. Since the change from "First-past-the-post" to "Proportional Representation" back in 1999, the whole of Scotland has been one single constituency.

I really do feel that it is important to be able to inform all of you about what I do in the European Parliament and how to contact me. I hope you enjoy your visit!

Struan Stevenson MEP

Struan Stevenson's record as an MEP - 1999-2005


Fisheries
I was elected President of the European Parliament's Fisheries Committee in 2001 and have presided over the reform of the CFP, the long-term cod and hake recovery plans and the consequent crisis in the whitefish sector. Successfully fought off attempts to end the 12-mile limit and open up the Irish Box and 200-mile Economic Exclusion Zone around Madeira and the Azores by winning a massive vote in the full plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg. However, this victory was subsequently overturned by a qualified majority vote in the Council of Ministers meeting in October 2003. Won an overwhelming majority in the EP in support of an emergency 150 million Euro socio-economic aid fund for the devastated whitefish communities. Presided over new policies for aquaculture and for fishing in the Mediterranean. Arranged visits of the Fisheries Committee to Scotland, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Canada, Chile, Mexico and Finland. Following the Euro-elections in June 2004, I was appointed Conservative front-bench spokesman on fisheries in the European Parliament.

Agriculture
I devised the idea and led the protest march of Conservative MEPs in the centre of Paris in 1999 at the height of the French illegal ban on British beef. We were stopped by riot police and escorted to the station and placed under guard on a train back to Brussels amid a huge media circus!

I participated in hearings in Scotland, of the Special Committee of Inquiry into Foot & Mouth Disease set up by the Agriculture Committee of the European Parliament.

I published a major guide to GMOs in 2002.

I campaigned relentlessly on behalf of farmers for a better deal from Brussels, Westminster and Holyrood and for justice over CAP reform.

Following the Euro-elections in June 2004 I was appointed Conservative Deputy Spokesman on Agriculture & Rural Affairs in the European Parliament.


Humanitarian Aid
I have undertaken extensive humanitarian aid work in the Semipalatinsk area of Kazakhstan for which I was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Science by the State Medical Academy of Kazakhstan (2001) and made an Honorary Citizen of Semipalatinsk City (2003).

From 1949 until 1990, the Soviet Union used the Semipalatinsk region of East Kazakhstan as a nuclear testing site. Hidden from the world, this top-secret site the size of France was subjected to 607 nuclear explosions, including 26 aboveground tests, 124 atmospheric tests and 457 underground. Cynically, the military scientists would wait until the wind was blowing in the direction of the remote Kazakh villages before detonating their nuclear devices. KGB doctors would then closely study the effects of nuclear radiation on their own population.

After widespread protests by the Kazakh population, President Gorbachev ordered a moratorium on all further tests in 1990. When the Soviet Union finally collapsed in December 1991, the departing battalions of troops and secret police who had guarded the ‘Polygon’ in East Kazakhstan left a legacy of devastation and sickness. The 1.5 million population of the Polygon were subjected to the equivalent of 20,000 Hiroshima bombs. Seepage from the underground tests has polluted watercourses and streams. Farmland has been heavily irradiated. Radioactive contamination has entered the food chain.

Now cancers run at five times the national average. Cancers of the throat, lungs and breasts are particularly common. Twelve-year-old girls have developed mammary cancer. Birth defects are three times the national average. Babies and farm animals are born with terrible deformities. Children are mentally retarded and Downs Syndrome is common. Virtually all children suffer from anaemia. Many of the young men are impotent. Many of the young women are afraid to become pregnant in case they give birth to defective babies. Psychological disorders are rife. Suicides are widespread, especially among young men and even, alarmingly among children. Fourteen children and teenagers committed suicide in Karaul village alone last year, including an eleven year old boy and a twelve year old girl. Average life expectancy is 52, compared to 59 outside the Polygon.

An amendment to the 2001 European Budget secured €4 million funding for Semipalatinsk out of the Commission’s TACIS fund.

In August 2003, Kimberley Joseph (star of Cold Feet, Gladiators and Home & Away) and I delivered $5000 cash aid from NIKE, together with around $2000 worth of sports goods to the beleaguered people of Semipalatinsk. I raised £20,000 sponsorship to mount an exhibition of photographs taken during our trip to Semipalatinsk, in order to draw attention to the plight of these unwitting victims of the Cold War. The exhibition toured venues including the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh, the European Parliament in Brussels, the Department for International Development in Whitehall, Congress in Washington DC and finally, Almaty, Astana and Semipalatinsk itself in Kazakhstan. In September 2004 I won a $50,000 prize in an international essay competition sponsored by the US-based John Templeton Foundation for an essay entitled ‘CRYING FOREVER’ charting the suffering of the people of Semipalatinsk. I donated the entire $50,000 to Mercy Corps Scotland to assist with their work in Semipalatinsk, with half going towards the purchase of equipment for the Oncology Hospital and half to Mercy Corps’ micro-credit loan fund.


Cat & Dog Fur
I have led the campaign throughout Europe to have an EU-wide ban on the import, export or sale of cat and dog fur products. The cat and dog fur trade is more common than we think and most of these products are imported from Asia. In some Asian countries, such as China, killing cats and dogs for their fur is the norm. Slaughter of these animals is horrific, with cats strangled outside their cages as other cats look on and dogs noosed with metal wires and then slashed across the groin until they bleed to death as the wire noose cuts into their throat.

In Harbin (Northern China), investigators from the lead organisation campaigning against this horrific trade - Humane Society International - documented a dog being skinned while still blinking and conscious. The pelts have appeared in EU stores as full length coats, homeopathic arthritis aids, hair bows for children, trim on sweaters and linings for boots and gloves as well as the toy cat figurines. One item purchased in the Netherlands for instance, was a bright red hair bow made to appear as faux fur, yet it was positively DNA tested as being made from dog fur. East Asian and Chinese exporters and unscrupulous furriers in the EU have used false labels on such items in the past, deliberately setting out to mislead the public as to their true origin. Names such as Gae-wolf, Sobaki, Asian Jackal, Goupee, China wolf and Asiatic Racoon Dog are commonly used on labels to deliberately mislead the public.

The animals used for this trade are raised under deplorable conditions and killed solely for their skins and furs. Strays dogs and cats are often rounded up and killed for their fur and even domestic pets are stolen to meet the growing demand for these products. Nearly 2 million dogs and cats die in this trade annually in China alone.

My campaign has led to unilateral bans being introduced in five EU Member States so far: France, Belgium, Greece, Denmark and Italy. Australia has also announced a total ban, following hard on the heels of similar legislation in the USA. Sadly, the EU is now regarded as a dumping ground for Asian cat and dog skins and there are signs that the trade is increasing. Despite a significant majority of MEPs signing a resolution calling for an EU-wide ban, the Commission has, so far, refused to budge. The campaign continues and most recently I have recruited to the campaign the renowned keyboard player from rock band 'YES' - Rick Wakeman, together with campaigner and wife of Beatle Paul, Heather Mills McCartney.


Miscellaneous


China
As a Member of the China Delegation I invited visiting Ministers from Beijing to come to Scotland and to meet leading representatives of the Whisky and Financial Services industries and Ministers in the Scottish Executive.

Whisky
In association with Neil McCormack MEP, Bill Miller MEP and Elspeth Attwooll MEP, we successfully campaigned to have Scotch Whisky sold in all European Parliament kiosks and shops with a special EP label.

Bad Vibrations
I won a major victory for farmers and tractor drivers when I pushed for and achieved a five-year exemption from the proposed "Physical Agents (Vibration) Directive" in the votes in the European Parliament. The Socialists MEPs had proposed a series of amendments to the Directive which would have placed unrealistic limits on daily Whole Body Vibration (WBV), supposed to be a prime cause of back pain. Under these limits, drivers of industrial vehicles (tractors, excavators, bulldozers, dumper trucks and forklifts) could reach this limit after as little as two hours per day.

Save the Bagpipes
I also led a campaign in Scotland to save the bagpipes after attempts by the Socialist Group to introduce unrealistically low thresholds for tolerable noise levels for anyone in their place of work. By exposing the fact that this directive would impact on professional pipers, I embarrassed the socialists into agreeing to an exemption for musicians and the music industry.

Fraud & Scandal
I constantly campaigned against sleaze and corruption in the European Commission highlighting the disgraceful suspension from office of Chief Accountant Marta Andreasen, the Eurostat scandal and other cases of fraud. I also campaigned vigorously for an end to the monthly trek to Strasbourg, with all European Parliamentary activities centred in future in Brussels.

My duties as a Member of the European Parliament:
Group of the European People's Party (Christian Democrats) and European Democrats (268 MEPs), - Vice President
ED Group (40 MEPs) Leader
Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development, Supplementary Member
Fisheries Committee, Full Member
Committee on Employment & Social Affairs, Full Member
Delegation for relations with the Republic of Chile, Full Member
Delegation for relations with the People's Republic of China, Supplementary Member
Deputy spokesman for the British Conservatives on agriculture
Spokesman for the British Conservatives on Fisheries.
Co- chairman of EPIC (European Parliamentarians and Industrialists Council) - click here for more info
President of the Intergroup on Conservation and Sustainable Development (140 MEPs)
Co-President of the Friends of Free Iran Intergroup
Editorial Board of 'The Parliament' Magazine - Member