The popular debate which passes for analysis of the EU seems dominated by many voices that are Eurosceptic, with only rare moments when good work carried out by the European Commission filter through the promises by the Conservatives to offer a referendum and accusations by Nigel Farage that this promise will be broken. One of the areas where the EU is so important is in persuading member Governments to ensure that their crime reduction activities extend to people trafficking. One of the MEPs who is very active in this work is Catherine Bearder, MEP for the South East of England. I met Catherine last year and her commitment to stop trafficking was very inspiring. Arguably if the UK was not part of the EU, we would need to work even harder to ensure that our voice was heard by neighbouring nations when the issue of trafficking was being discussed.

Another example which shows the benefit of the EU is in the area of energy saving. By setting European wide energy saving targets, participants in the single market which is at the heart of the Common Market that even people such as Farage and Cameron are in favour of, can focus on providing services and products that will meet these targets. If these targets for energy saving were set by individual countries in isolation, or if the UK did not participate in the setting of such targets, our own industries would be at something of a disadvantage when attempting to sell into the market, which would be a great deal smaller than it can be with the current EU. The pressure for setting challenging targets for energy saving comes in part from a group called the European Alliance for Saving Energy who according to this article, wrote to the President of the European Commission this week calling for challenging targets to be be included in the EU energy and climate framework for 2030 white paper. The EU-ASE is made up of businesses and MEPs including one English MEP, Fiona Hall who like Catherine Bearder is a member of the Liberal Democratic Party.

I confess that my own knowledge of the EU is not as great as I would like it to be, I could do a great deal more to find out about its activities, but by the same token, our media could do more to help report on activities such as those that MEPs like Catherine Bearder and Fiona Hall are involved in. There is a very useful website called Votewatch Europe which helps to show how often our MEPs participate in the work of the EU. Its fascinating to see that for example Nigel Farage attends the EU least out of all 754 MEPs although he has spoken many more times than some of those who attend more often. The website allows you to follow the activities of specific MEPs like They Work For You in the UK Parliament which is an invaluable tool for keeping an ear to Westminster. In preparation for electing or re-electing MEPs in May, Votewatch Europe could be a very helpful website, although it will make uncomfortable reading for those whose attendance at their formal place of work is rather modest.