Stone Liberal Democrats

Battery hen cages will have been eliminated from every EU country by the end of the year, EU Health Commissioner John Dalli has announced.

Speaking at a meeting of the European Agriculture Committee in Brussels this week, Dalli also said that 16 Member States are now expected to be compliant with the ban on sow stalls - small boxes where pigs can stand but barely move about - by the end of this year.

Using your mobile phone abroad will be cheaper from this summer after Euro MPs voted to cut roaming charges again.

The new legal limits set by the European Parliament in Brussels mean mobile phone calls from one EU country to another will cost no more than 28p per minute, while the cap on SMS charges is down to 8p per message.

West Midlands Lib Dem Euro MP Phil Bennion has spoken out against a call in a European Parliament report to ban budget airlines from offering low fares with strict limits on hand baggage allowance.
An 'own initiative' report by local Tory MEP Philip Bradbourn on regional airports and aviation was adopted by the European Parliament in Brussels this week.
Phil Bennion said he backed the report overall as it called for regional airports such as Birmingham to be developed to boost regional growth and jobs, but he was concerned by a compromise amendment added by the Transport Committee calling for a generous common upper limit for hand baggage for all flights.
If carried into law such a rule could see budget airlines like Ryanair and Easyjet having to drastically increase fares or even redesign the interiors of their planes at huge cost.
Phil Bennion said: "There is a lot of good stuff in the Bradbourn report and as it is not legislative I voted for it. Overall it strikes a good balance between the important role of regional aviation in boosting regional economic competitiveness while opposing proliferation of too many regional airports.
"However I don't agree with paragraph 13 which is a compromise amendment added by the Transport Committee, where I am a substitute member but did not have a vote.
"Encouraging people to travel light not only means lower fares but also makes good environmental sense as fares more closely reflect the carbon footprint of each passenger.
"If low hand baggage limits were banned, fares overall would go up.
"Airlines should be free to offer different types of fares, with or without limited baggage allowances. I don't think low hand baggage limits are a breach of competition law at all.
"The effect of this proposal would be to force budget airlines with smaller planes to offer the same hand baggage allowance as long distance jumbo jets. This would not only increase fares, it would be extremely difficult technically on a small regional jet where the lockers are not very deep. There simply is not enough space in a narrow fuselage."
Phil added that he was also concerned by the stress in the amended report on promoting commercial activities as a major income stream for airports.
"An airport should fundamentally be an airport, not be padded out with a huge shopping malls outside town centres subsidising landing charges which passengers are forced to walk through.
"This idea could lead to a vicious circle that favours the largest airports like Heathrow with huge retail centres attached. Regional airports could lose out.
"I support more long distance flights at Birmingham on a longer runway but not building a new Bull Ring at the site to keep up with pressure to subsidise landing charges."
Phil said that he also backed calls by the ALDE group of Lib Dem MEPs for more stress on better connections for air travellers with rail and bus transport.
ENDS

Liberal Democrat Euro MPs are taking action to increase the pressure on multinational companies to pay their taxes, especially in the developing world.

Last year big multinational companies operating in the developing world avoided paying taxes of approximately $165 billion to host governments.

Lib Dem MEPs have launched a new campaign - 'Own, Up, Pay Up!' - to shed light on the issue and to prevent future financial malpractice among EU multinationals.

West Midlands MEP Phil Bennion is backing a petition launched by Sharon Bowles MEP, the chair of the European Parliament's influential Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee, to support moves to get tax-dodging multinationals to pay their fair share.

Sharon has taken her campaign one step further by tabling far-reaching amendments to the EU Transparency and Accountancy Directives.

Somalia's problems require an internationally backed development plan to rebuild the country, West Midlands Euro MP Phillip Bennion told leaders of Birmingham's Somali community on Saturday April 7th.

The Lib Dem MEP and Cllr Ayoub Khan attended the Arrahma Mosque in Small Health as guests of Dr Cabdulqaddir Ruumi and leaders at the Mosque and accompanying community and business centre to discuss issues with the growing Somali community, both local and international.

EU governments must sit up and take notice after the biggest vote yet for the European Parliament to be based in just one city, says local Lib Dem Euro MP Phillip Bennion.

Euro MPs including new West Midlands region MEP Phillip Bennion voted overwhelmingly last week in favour of a single seat for the European Parliament as part of their negotiating position with EU Member States on the Parliament's budget for 2013. A clause in the budget proposal calling for a single seat was passed with 429 MEPs in favour of a single seat, 184 against and 37 abstentions.

Over 20 million working people will be better off next year after Liberal Democrats in the Coalition Government delivered the biggest ever increase in the income tax personal allowance in the Budget.

The massive £3.5bn tax cut for working people delivers:

• The biggest ever single uplift in the tax threshold
• A personal allowance of £9,205 in April 2013
• 21 million working people getting an extra £220 tax cut
• Brings the total tax cut for basic rate tax payers to £550
• Brings the total number of people lifted out of tax to 2 million.

Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg used his speech to the Party's Spring conference in NewcastleGateshead to call for the forthcoming budget to be a "budget for fairness" and pledged that it would help working familes.

The Deputy Prime Minister pledged that by 2015 Britain would have seen an end to control orders, the first gay marriages and the first elections to the House of Lords.

Fairer taxes, promoting green jobs, protecting your civil liberties - these are just some of the achievements of the Liberal Democrats in government.

We're building a freer, greener and more liberal country - and stopping some of the worst excesses of the Conservatives. Find out more in this infographic.