Catherine Bearder

Catherine Bearder
MEP
Quaestor of the European Parliament
Assumed office
2 July 2014
Serving with Élisabeth Morin, Andrey Kovatchev, Karol Karski, Vladimír Maňka
Member of the European Parliament
for South East England
Assumed office
4 June 2009
Preceded by The Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne
Personal details
Born (1949-01-14) 14 January 1949
Broxbourne, Hertfordshire, UK
Nationality British
Political party Liberal Democrat
Spouse(s) Professor Simon Bearder
Children 3
Website www.bearder.eu
europarl..CATHERINE_BEARDER

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, Tim, 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 President of the Liberal Democrat European Group (LDEG).[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.

Bearder is a member of the European Parliament's Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety and the Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality, where she serves as her parliamentary group's coordinator.[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]

Following the 2014 European elections, Bearder was elected as quaestor of the European Parliament for two and a half years. In this capacity, she is also a member of the High-level Group on Gender Equality and Diversity and chairwoman of the Artistic Committee. Her role as quaestor made her part of the Parliament’s leadership under President Martin Schulz.[8] In addition to her committee assignments, Bearder is a member of the European Parliament Intergroup on SMEs.[9]

In 2015, the European Parliament approved an amendment introduced by Bearder demanding immediate publication of existing inquiries into member states involvement in secret flights operated by the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and linked to ‘enhanced interrogations’ conducted outside US territory, in particular the inquiry into UK involvement led by John Chilcot.[10]

On 23 June 2018 Bearder appeared at the People's Vote march in London to mark the second anniversary of the referendum to leave the European Union. People's Vote is a campaign group calling for a public vote on the final Brexit deal between the UK and the European Union. Bearder tweeted, "Give us a say Mrs May! I'm marching today to get a final say on the deal."[11]

Other activities

  • Oxfordshire Rural Community Council, Patron

References

  1. 1 2 Catherine Bearder official website
  2. ↑ Liberal Democrats select European Parliament Candidates for England
  3. ↑ "European Election 2009: South East". BBC News Online. 8 June 2009. Retrieved 8 June 2009.
  4. ↑ Catherine BEARDER | Home | MEPs | European Parliament
  5. ↑ It’s time for the EU to get serious about wildlife crime – EURACTIV.com
  6. ↑ The clean air package: Improving Europe's air quality - Consilium
  7. ↑ Procedure File: 2015/2118(INI) | Legislative Observatory | European Parliament
  8. ↑ Toby Vogel (3 July 2014), MEPs elect five quaestors European Voice.
  9. ↑ Members of the European Parliament Intergroup on SMEs European Parliament.
  10. ↑ Dave Keating (11 February 2015), MEPs call on member states to admit CIA torture role European Voice.
  11. ↑ Staff writer (23 June 2018). "'At least 100,000' march for vote on final Brexit deal". Sky News. Retrieved 25 June 2018.
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