Speaking up for the East of England

I didn’t become an MEP in order to promote the EU. I want us to govern our own country. I go to Brussels to speak up for British interests and the people of the East of England. At the same time I want to make the best of the EU for the benefit of the UK and our local economy, working closely with local businesses, farmers, fishermen and young people and getting out and about to hear the views of people across our six Eastern counties. So I am involved in a wide range of issues at national, international and local level.

I sit on both the Foreign Affairs Committee and the Security and Defence Subcommittee in the European Parliament. My first priority is the British national interest. That is why I have consistently opposed the creation of the EU’s ‘External Action Service’ (the diplomatic service that will gradually erode our national representation abroad) and lead the opposition to EU defence policy, a political project which adds nothing to military capabilities and distracts European allies from wholehearted commitment to NATO. As a former senior British Army officer I spent many years engaged in counter-terrorism and continue that engagement from a political point of view. I therefore take a close interest in Sri Lanka, the Middle East, and Kashmir. Over many years, I have also spearheaded the European Parliament’s campaign for democratic change in Zimbabwe.

As a member of the Transport Committee I am involved in issues ranging from airport security to road and rail improvements. I was delighted to add support to the campaign to upgrade the Nuneaton-Felixstowe rail-link, drawing on EU-funding.

Geoffrey with Lady Thatcher and Rt. Hon. Liam Fox at the New Direction Launch

Geoffrey with Lady Thatcher and Rt. Hon. Liam Fox at the New Direction Launch

I’m a member of the governing Bureau of the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) Group in the European Parliament, which many of you will know is where Conservative MEPs sit in Brussels. The ECR group brings together mainstream, centre-right parties of government from all over Europe in an unprecedented opposition grouping. Please click here to read an article which sets out the reasons why the Conservatives are right to have taken this step.

I also helped draft the principles of the Prague Declaration on which the ECR is founded and helped establish a new Euro-realist think-tank linked to the ECR called New Direction, of which Lady Thatcher is the Patron and I am the President.

I look foward to hearing your views.

Maintaining British Links with the US
Fighting for our fishermen

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Supporting local troops in Afghanistan
Strengthening British Links with Israel


Energy security and the East of England
Fighting for Democracy in Zimbabwe

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© 2011 Geoffrey Van Orden MEP