Catherine Bearder
| Catherine Bearder MEP | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Member of the European Parliament for South East England | |
|
Assumed office 4 June 2009 | |
| Preceded by | The Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
14 January 1949 Broxbourne, Hertfordshire, UK |
| Nationality | British |
| Political party | Liberal Democrat |
| Spouse(s) | Professor Simon Bearder |
| Children | 3 |
| Website |
www europarl..CATHERINE_BEARDER |
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Catherine Zena Bearder (born 14 January 1949) is a Liberal Democrat politician and MEP for South East England.
Personal life
Born in Hertfordshire, she was educated at the independent St Christopher School, Letchworth. She is married to Professor Simon Bearder, a zoologist at Oxford Brookes University. The couple have three sons, Timothy, Ian and Peter.[1] Prior to becoming an MEP, she worked as a development officer in a number of major national charities.
Political career
A former Lib Dem councillor in Cherwell and on Oxfordshire County Council, twice European candidate and parliamentary candidate for Banbury in 1997 and Henley in 2001, Bearder has been an active Liberal Democrat for many years. She is also vice-chair of the Liberal Democrat European Group (LDEG) and vice-president of the Green Liberal Democrats.[1]
She was the second placed Liberal Democrat candidate for the European Parliament in the South East region of England.[2] Replacing Emma Nicholson MEP, she was placed behind Sharon Bowles MEP on the party list for the 2009 European elections. Bearder was elected to the European Parliament [3] on 4 June 2009, and took her seat on 14 July. In 2014 she was re-elected, as the sole British Liberal Democrat MEP.
Catherine Bearder is a member of the European Parliament's Environment, Public Health and Food Safety Committee and Women's Rights Committee.[4] She focuses on environmental issues, especially wildlife conservation and biodiversity, and has founded the cross-party "MEPs for Wildlife group" which is calling for an EU Action Plan against Wildlife Trafficking.[5] She has been appointed as one of the lead MEPs working on the revision of the National Emissions Ceiling Directive, which will set national targets to reduce emissions of harmful pollutants. This forms part of the EU's Clean Air Package, which according to the European Commission could prevent an estimated 38,000 premature deaths a year in the EU by 2030.[6] Bearder is a longtime campaigner on the issue of human trafficking and has been appointed to draft a European Parliament report looking at the implementation of the EU Human Trafficking Directive 2011/36/EU.[7]
References
- 1 2 Catherine Bearder official website
- ↑ Liberal Democrats select European Parliament Candidates for England
- ↑ "European Election 2009: South East". BBC News Online. 8 June 2009. Retrieved 8 June 2009.
- ↑ http://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/96955/CATHERINE_BEARDER_home.html
- ↑ http://www.euractiv.com/sections/sustainable-dev/its-time-eu-get-serious-about-wildlife-crime-312628
- ↑ http://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/policies/clean-air/
- ↑ http://www.europarl.europa.eu/oeil/popups/ficheprocedure.do?lang=&reference=2015/2118%28INI%29