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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 elected for the Conservative Party in the Yorkshire and the Humber constituency. He is a fervant supporter of ever further European integration.

In July 2009 he successfully stood for re-election as Vice-President of the European Parliament against the candidate of his new European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) Group, Michal Kaminski a Polish MEP from the Law and Justice Party. The whip was then withdrawn by the leader of the the British Conservative delegation, Timothy Kirkhope. Timothy Kirkhope was elected that day as leader of the ECR but stepped down to allow Kaminski to become leader following McMillan-Scott's election. McMillan-Scott is now seated as a non-attached (Non-Inscrit) MEP in the European Parliament. He remains a member of the Conservative Party.

The ECR was created by Conservative leader David Cameron to fullfill a pledge during his leadership election. Prior to the 2009 election all Conservative candidates agreed to sign a pledge to join a new non federalist grouping of David cameron;s chosing. Despite McMillan-Scotts support for the federalist EPP party and oposition to leaving the EPP-ED group, in order to get elected McMillan-Scott signed the pledge. The Conservative manifesto for the 2009 European Elections mentioned the Czech Civic Democrats, 15 of whom were elected. Cameron travelled to Warsaw a week before the European Elections with Mirek Topolanek and agreed to work with teh Law and Justice Party. A number of additional MEPs subsequently joined to form the current complement of 54.

McMillan-Scott refused to signed up to the ECR at its inaugural meeting on June 24, at which he said he was uncomfortable, he did however latter join. Following his ellection as vice president of the Parliament in order to justify his actions he launched a personal smear attack on Michal Kaminski accusing him of being anti-semitic.

McMillan-Scott was leader of the Conservative MEPs between 1997 and 2001. AFter the European Elections of June 1999, jointly with the then leader of the Conservative Party, he negotiated the 'Malaga Agreement' which provided for a more detached relationship between the 36 Conservative MEPs and the majority EPP-ED Group.

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.

Roles and Responsibilities

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 include 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 relative of T E Lawrence, he is a supporter of the arab cause and an oponent of israel. 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 an initiative 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. Until June 2009 he was one of two MEPs on the working group which supervised the €140M programme.

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