The Conservative spokesman in the European Parliament on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality, Julie Girling, has warmly welcomed the Prime Minister’s announcement on new measures to tackle the gender pay gap.

David Cameron has said that companies with more than 250 employees will be required by law to publish the difference between the average pay of their male and female employees as well as the amount awarded to men and women in bonuses.

The current pay gap in the UK means that women, on average, earn 19% less than men. In real terms this means women earn 80p for every £1 earned by a man- for doing the same job.

Mrs Girling said: “Tackling the gender pay gap has been a long standing priority for me and my Conservative colleagues and it is something that I have personally campaigned on for many years. Across the whole of the EU, women earn less than men for doing a job of equal value, something that is not only morally indefensible, but is against the law in the UK.”

The South West and Gibraltar MEP added, “Conservative MEPs have never shied away from acknowledging that there is a problem when it comes to the gender pay gap. However David Cameron’s plans show that we don’t need EU diktats to sort out this problem, as it is national governments who are best placed to work with companies to ensure that they are complying with the rules.”
ENDS

Nuclear Boost Essential for South West Future

In a statement following the announcement that EDF and its Chinese partner China General Nuclear Corporation (CGN) have reached a deal to take forward the Hinkley Point C new nuclear project in Somerset, Julie Girling, MEP for South West England and Gibraltar said;

“The importance of Hinkley C for the future of the South West and UK energy mix cannot be underestimated. For our region, this news is a welcome boost to jobs and growth and is essential to the future economic success of the South West.

“There is huge scope for our local businesses to work with the Hinkley developers to secure new revenue streams for this and future projects – EDF has made assurances that 60% of the value of construction will go to UK firms – now is the time for businesses across the South West to step up and deliver some of the fantastic engineering and technology already being developed and built right here on our doorstep.

“All the talk may have been about the Northern Powerhouse but now, the Southern Powerhouse has truly arrived.”

Girling issues warning over proposed organic food rules

ECR MEP Julie Girling has strongly criticised a proposed revision to the rules on organic farming in the EU. The Commission’s proposal introduces a series of complex requirements which will do little to ease the burden on EU farmers.

Unfortunately in a vote this week, the European Parliament’s Agriculture Committee failed to improve the draft proposal. Instead, at the insistence of the Parliament’s lead negotiator, a German Green MEP, it has been rushed through with hundreds of amendments, potentially leading to an even more complex situation for farmers.

Mrs Girling said: “Regrettably, we have ended up with an incoherent proposal which further increases the rules and requirements for Europe’s farmers. I am however pleased that we managed to overturn the Commission’s proposal to ban mixed farms. This would have had a devastating impact on countries such as the UK, where 25% of organic farms are mixed. Nevertheless, I remain concerned that the proposals we have in front of us now will make it even more difficult for conventional farmers to shift to organic practices. This flies in the face of the Commission’s stated objective of expanding Europe’s organics sector.”

A senior MEP today welcomed a decision by MEPs telling the EU Commission to think again over plans to let member states unilaterally ban animal feed made from genetically modified crops.

Julie Girling MEP said the move by the European Parliament’s Environment Committee was: “A blow for science and the single market over superstition and scaremongering”.

Mrs Girling, Conservative environment spokesman, strongly criticised the Commission in April when it announced plans to give Member States freedom to restrict or prohibit the use of genetically-modified (GM) organisms in food or feed on their territory, even when those products had been approved as safe by the EU and its scientists. She accused the Commission of caving in to a minority of vocal member states and to the anti-GMO lobby.

“This is submission disguised as subsidiarity” she said at the time.

Today the committee voted to reject the Commission proposal and send it back to the Commission to be reconsidered. A similar vote was passed previously by the parliament’s Agriculture Committee.

Mrs Girling, MEP for the South West and Gibraltar, said “The EU cannot produce enough protein feed for its livestock. We rely on imports of GM feed to maintain our livestock sector. The Commission proposal is dangerous. It pits politics against the agricultural sector. It side-lines science and the advice of the EU’s own advisory agencies. It blasts a hole through the core principles of the single market. It swallows the rhetoric of anti-GM regions and conveniently ignores the fact those regions cannot keep their own livestock alive without GM feed. The Commission must now listen to the views of these two committees and scrap this plan in its current form.”

Conference event to highlight horror of female genital mutilation (FGM)

A high-profile fringe event at the Conservative Party Conference today (Mon) will call for greater urgency in tackling the horrific practice of female genital mutilation.

Julie Girling MEP has organised the meeting and will join other speakers in calling for greater emphasis on prosecuting adults who allow or carry out FGM.

The MEP for the South West, Conservative spokesman on equality, is leading a campaign promoting a three-point manifesto to end the horror of young girls having their outer sexual parts cut away – all to satisfy a misplaced sense of tradition and cultural identity.

The campaign calls for:

• A more robust approach to bringing adults behind FGM to justice.
• Better international recording and reporting of FGM to reveal the true scale of the scandal.
• International “aid conditionality” – to use development funding as a moral lever on countries where FGM is allowed or even condoned.

FGM has been a criminal offence in the UK since 1985, yet there has not yet been a single prosecution. Conservatives have been at the forefront of efforts to galvanise EU-wide action against FGM. – See more at: http://conservativeeurope.com/news/girling-fgm-more-than-just-a-big-city-problem#sthash.EhiK9M1Z.dpuf

Panellists at the Manchester fringe event will include Solicitor General Robert Buckland and survivor Alimatu Dimonekene, who will tell the heart-rending story of her own subjection to FGM and its effect on her life.

Mrs Girling said: “It was a breakthrough when FGM was criminalised in 1985, but the lack of any prosecution since then means the law has effectively been redundant. Certainly FGM has continued unchecked. If misplaced social or religious sensitivities have stood in the way of prosecutions then that must stop. This is child abuse pure and simple and must be treated as such.”

VW: Europe could look to America for answers

The VW emissions scandal could cause legislators to look to America for a lead on tackling test fraud, a leading MEP has said.

Julie Girling, Conservative environment spokesman in the European Parliament, says in an article published today that the company’s admission of wholesale cheating has completely changed the political and legislative mood.

Writing for Parliament Magazine, the South West MEP, said: “I believe the scandal will focus our attention still further on what can be learned from the United States, the place where this cheating was detected and where the story broke.”

Mrs Girling is lead MEP on legislation currently going through the European Parliament on air quality.

She said: “One of the biggest names in motor manufacturing, if not down and not out is on the ropes and reeling. In a few hours, a household name has become a dirty word. I pointed out the relevance of the American example in my report earlier his year. Now events are pointing the same way.

“The US runs a very different system of regulation from Europe. There they set standards and then do random tests (known as surveillance testing) on vehicles…they take cars off the road and test them for emissions performance throughout their on-road life.”

“In the EU, by contrast… we lay out the performance standards on new vehicles, test them and then put them on the road without any further testing. We assume that what happens on the road for the car’s life is the same as at the pre-launch test station.”

“Over the last decade, the EU Commission and the industry have known that the on the road, in real driving conditions, vehicles do not perform as the tests suggest they would. Can that really remain the status quo?”

“If a company as big and reputable as Volkswagen could buck the system – how can we trust the system at all?”