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Edward McMillan-Scott was born in Cambridge in 1949. He is a Member of the European Parliament for the United Kingdom and one of the Vice-Presidents of the European Parliament. He was first elected a Yorkshire MEP in 1984 and re-elected top of the list in June 2009 for the Conservative Party in the Yorkshire and the Humber constituency.

In July 2009 he successfully stood for re-election as Vice-President of the European Parliament against the candidate imposed on the new European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) Group. The nominee, Michal Kaminski (37), a Polish MEP from the controversial Law and Justice Party, was described by McMillan-Scott as 'having homophobic, anti-semitic and nationalist links', a reference to Kaminski's post-1989 membership of the National Revival of Poland (NOP).

The whip was withdrawn from McMillan-Scott by the leader of the British Conservative delegation, Timothy Kirkhope MEP, who was also elected leader of the ECR Group that day. However, he was replaced in the poast by Kaminski the same night. McMillan-Scott has requested the restoration of the whip from Party leader David Cameron. He is currently a non-attached (Non-Inscrit) MEP in the European Parliament, like his Conservative colleagues Daniel Hannan MEP and Roger Helmer MEP after they were expelled from the EPP-ED Group in the previous parliament, and Helmer was deprived of the Conservative whip for a year. McMillan-Scott remains a member of the Conservative Party.

The ECR was formed after a manifesto commitment by David Cameron, leader of the Conservative Party, who said "Three years ago, with the Leader of the Czech Civic Democrats, I announced that Conservative MEPs would form a new centre-right group in the European Parliament..." Two days after the elections, Cameron travelled to Warsaw and signed up the Polish Law and Justice Party and later several individuals from other Member States. A European Parliament group must have at least 25 Members from at least seven Member States.

McMillan-Scott joined the ECR Group and attended its inaugural meeting on June 24, at which he said he was uncomfortable, in particular stating that he hoped no members of the ECR had links to extremist organisations 'like Poland's National Revival'. The following day, a reference to Kaminski's membership of NOP was removed from his Misplaced Pages entry.

European Parliament

McMillan-Scott was the MEP for York from 1984 to 1994, MEP for North Yorkshire from 1994 to 1999, and MEP for Yorkshire and the Humber from 1999 onwards. Before the 2009 elections.

Roles and Responsibilities

McMillan-Scott was leader of the Conservative MEPs between 1997 and 2001. After the European Elections of June 1999, jointly with then Conservative leader Rt Hon William Hague, McMillan-Scott negotiated the 'Malaga Agreement' which gave the 36 Conservative MEPs a more detached relationship with the majority EPP-ED Group.

On 23 July 2004 he was elected fourth of the 14 Vice-Presidents of the European Parliament. He was re-elected a Vice-President in 2007. McMillan-Scott's responsibilities as Vice-President in the last parliament included relations with national EU parliaments and the Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly, which brings together 240 MPs from the EU, North Africa and the Middle East.

A relation of T E Lawrence (of Arabia) he was elected chairman of the European Parliament's largest-ever election observer missions, 30 MEPs, to Palestine in January 2005 and January 2006 for the presidential and parliamentary elections respectively.

Campaigning

McMillan-Scott was the founder of the European Democracy Initiative which was originally aimed at the transformation of the ex-Soviet bloc and which he is now directing towards the reforming Arab world and authoritarian countries such as China, Cuba and Russia. He was one of two MEPs on the European Parliament working group overseeing the €140 million programme until June 2009.

He campaigns for improved children's rights across the EU and has dealt with a number of cross-frontier child abduction cases. He is currently campaigning for an EU-wide missing child alert with Kate and Gerry McCann, parents of missing Madeleine. A majority of MEPs supported a resolution to this effect, sponsored in the summer of 2008 by McMillan-Scott. In the USA, the Department of Justice's Amber Alert has recovered 400 abducted children since 2003, 80% within the crucial first 72 hours. France has an identical system but other countries, including the UK, rely on a patchwork of volunteers and charities.

His 'Golden Fleece' campaign against fraud and malpractice in the Costa villa and timeshare market won wide support. He is currently campaigning for more secure property rights in the EU's neighbourhood, as buyers move into the Balkans, Turkey and North Africa, where the legal framework is insecure.

References

External links

• Official website
• Profile at European Parliament website
• Mcmillanscott asks David Cameron to restore the whip
• Mcmillanscott campaign for vice president website

Template:Yorkshire and the Humber MEPs

• 1949 births
• Living people
• Conservative MEPs
• Members of the European Parliament for English constituencies
• ECRG MEPs serving 2009-2014