European Union

By: Philip Bushill-Matthews philip.bushill-matthews@portugalresident.com Philip Bushill-Matthews MEP and Conservative Spokesman for Employment and Social Affairs. THE FIRST full meeting of 2007, for European Parliament, has seen a number of changes.

By: Philip Bushill-Matthews Email: philip.bushill-matthews@portugalresident.com For many of us, the purpose of the European Union has always been primarily about completing a real common market, enabling trade to flow freely

By: Philip Bushill-Matthews Email: philip.bushill-matthews@portugalresident.com One of the final pieces of legislation voted through the European Parliament at the end of 2006, was perhaps the most important – and certainly

From Philip Bushill-Matthews MEP and Conservative Spokesman for Employment and Social Affairs WITH THE unfolding tragedy in the Middle East dominating the headlines, it would be easy to have missed

The EU is increasingly recognising the importance of environmental legislation on a European scale. In the last session before the summer break, MEPs voted through an amended Batteries Directive, which

THE HIGHLIGHT of the European Parliamentary session in Strasbourg this month was a special feast. Arranged by fellow Conservative MEPs, it was a barbecue of British beef to celebrate the

LEAD IS a very dangerous metal. The recent case of the young lad who swallowed a small piece of jewellery and died of lead poisoning is a tragic reminder of

THERE HAS been much publicity recently about the EU trying to force further European harmonisation on the British consumer. According to several UK newspapers, the Commission has been determined to