New pan-European rules were finally agreed yesterday, with the UK being the only member state to try to defend the status quo by maintaining the current flawed system of extra hand-outs in the financial sector.

Glenis said: “The consensus reached last night between the European Parliament and the Council (the member state governments) toughens up the rules relating to bankers’ bonuses.

“Let’s remember why we need new rules in the financial sector.   Activity within the industry led to banks being bailed-out with £5.2 billion losses, and fines of £1.1 billion for mis-selling.  Yet those banks who had paid £390 million fines for Libor-fixing, for example, still paid over £600m in bonuses last year!”

“In 2010, the EU put in place rules ensuring that bonuses were deferred, that they could be clawed back and that cash bonuses were limited.

“The banks were told then to introduce a ratio between fixed salary and bonus elements. Their failure to do so has therefore led to the introduction of a compulsory bonus cap.   A 1:1 salary to bonus ratio aims to put an end to the excessive risk culture which has led to taxpayer bail-outs and bank collapses.”

“These new rules are designed to make banks safer, more accountable and to ensure they focus on lending to the real economy.  It’s a sad indictment on our own government, that they fought so hard to hang on to the bad old ways of doing business.”

Now in its 10th year, “wear it pink” day, on Friday 26 October 2012, will see supporters from all over the country in schools, colleges and businesses embracing the event’s new theme – superheroes. The theme stems from the charity’s belief that everybody who joins the fight – from people affected by breast cancer, to Breast Cancer Campaign scientists and all wear it pink participants – is a superhero.

Glenis said MEP said: “One in every eight women experience breast cancer during their lifetime, and each year, over 330,000 women across Europe and around 48,000 women in the UK are diagnosed with the disease.  Supporting the “wear it pink” day will help, but we also need to work together with our European partners to carry out better research into breast cancer, have more data about the disease, and develop more effective treatments.”

Glenis Willmott said: “With the thalidomide scandal back in the news after so many years, and a major scandal in France recently with a diabetes drug called Mediator, it’s a timely opportunity to say ‘never again’ to a situation where prescribed drugs have not been properly tested and monitored.”

“The new EU rules on what is called “pharmacovigilance,” which we’re voting on today, are about monitoring new medicines for their side effects.”

“With the same drugs being sold across Europe, we need to ensure that health regulators can collect information across member states, so that any problems can be picked up and dealt with as quickly as possible.”

Under the new proposals, in cases where regulators have asked companies to carry out a safety study on a particular medicine, that medicine will now have to carry a black “warning” symbol on the packaging and on the patient information leaflet until  the study has been carried out.

In addition, serious concerns about drug safety will trigger an automatic investigation by European regulators, instead of being left to the discretion of individual national regulators.

Every European citizen should have the right to open and run a basic bank account.
 
That was the conclusion of a vote in the European Parliament yesterday, supported by local Labour MEP Glenis Willmott.
 
Glenis said: “Over 30 million adults across the EU do not have access to a bank account.   Some may choose not to do so, but far too often, for no apparent legal reason, people are being denied a basic payment account by banks.  
 
“If you prevent people from having a bank account you are in effect excluding them from financial products and services, and most importantly, barring them from certain jobs which require access to a bank account.  It creates an unnecessary social divide between those who hold bank accounts and those who don’t.
 
“The Report voted on today in Strasbourg calls for the European Commission to produce a legislative proposal by January 2013.    Legislative approaches have had good results in those countries where they’ve been adopted.  For example, close to 100 % of households in Finland and Denmark are covered by payment services while the number of citizens without bank accounts has dropped considerably in Belgium and France after the adoption of legislative proposals in those countries.

East Midlands MEP Glenis Willmott discussed regional health at a meeting to profile some of the initiatives being undertaken by local organisations to reduce obesity when she visited the Platform for Health and Wellbeing at a meeting hosted by Alfreton-based Slimming World on Friday, 29 June.

The Platform for Health and Wellbeing is a public health approach working to reduce obesity in local communities.  Its members, from the public, private, and voluntary sectors, make voluntary commitments which encourage and enable behaviour change. Ultimately, it’s about getting more people to be a healthy weight, to move more and eat well.

Representatives from a number of local organisations ranging from Nottingham Trent University to Slimming World and the Soil Association to NHS trusts and local authorities including Leicestershire and Lincolnshire attended the meeting and spoke to Glenis about their priorities for regional health and wellbeing.

Following the visit Glenis said: “This was a great opportunity for me to hear about a number of local initiatives being undertaken by private, public and voluntary sector organisations across the East Midlands.  I was hugely impressed by the variety and scope of the schemes as well as the obvious professionalism and commitment of the people involved as members of the Platform for Health and Wellbeing.

“In turn, I hope I was able to explain how important European legislation is, since a whole raft of matters affecting obesity, such as food labelling, are now decided at EU level.”

Dr Jacquie Lavin who leads Slimming World’s involvement in the Platform says: “Obesity impacts on all our lives. Clearly it’s a problem across the developed world but the causes are often close to home and most of us recognise that our lifestyle and the environment we live in is, at least partly, to blame. By working with other employers, organisations and health professionals across the East Midlands region as well as nationally, Slimming World offers sustainable and practical solutions to help people to lose weight as well as help to make significant impacts on reduced absenteeism and, through better health and wellbeing, increased productivity.” –

For the International Day against Homophobia and Transphobia 2012, Glenis and over 50 other European politicians and leaders are part of a video which tells LGBT teenagers they are committed to making things better, and putting an end to homophobia and transphobia.

Glenis explained: “If you grow up lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, it can be hugely challenging.   Bullying, self-harm, and sometimes suicide attempts are all too common.    Research consistently shows higher physical and mental health risks for LGBT young people.”

“The global theme of the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia is youth and education, and I hope that the video we made will be seen as a real support for LGBT young people, and an indication of our commitment to ‘make things better’.

Mrs Willmott, Labour MEP for the East Midlands said: “While the economic crisis loudly rumbles on, a much quieter crisis is happening all around us, in every country in the European Union.

“With ageing populations, there are more and more people suffering from neuro-degenerative diseases.   Already over 35 million people are living with Alzheimer’s and other dementias worldwide, with this number due to double by 2030.

Labour’s European spokesperson on Public Health explained how new EU proposals included in the Health for Growth Programme could provide real added value.

“We need to share data about dementia, collecting it in a similar way, allowing us all to compare results, and we also need to coordinate our research into the disease.

“And we have to look at common policies. How can we make sure people are diagnosed early? How do we ease the burden on families the patient?

“The EU’s Health for Growth programme offers opportunities to work together across the EU, taking the best that Europe can provide, while allowing individual governments the freedom and autonomy to deliver effective health care in their own way.

“And while attention is understandably devoted to the crisis in the Eurozone, we must not miss out on chances to work together on issues in other fields, most notably public health.

Glenis Willmott, who leads on health issues for Labour in the European Parliament said: “325,000 deaths per year are attributed to diabetes in the EU; that is one European citizen every two minutes.”

“If we are serious about tackling diabetes and the huge burden it places on patients, their families and the NHS, then we must be far more focussed on the patient and on prevention.  In particular we need much better nutritional labelling to enable people to make healthier choices about the food they eat.”

Diabetes is one of the most common non-communicable diseases, estimated to affect nearly 10°% of the total EU population.  Type 2 diabetes decreases life expectancy by 5-10 years, while Type 1 diabetes decreases life expectancy by around 20 years.

Commenting on the successful vote in Parliament this week, Glenis said: “Labour MEPs and our socialist & democrat colleagues successfully strengthened the resolution this week from one geared towards pharmaceutical companies and making money out of the disease into something much more focused on patients and preventing the disease in the first place.”

“Type 2 diabetes is caused by obesity and poor nutrition.  We can do far more to stop it occurring in the first place, and clearer food labelling is a key component in this process of prevention.”

Last year Mrs Willmott led the fight in the European Parliament over how our food is labelled.  Some improvements were made, but she ultimately lost on issues such as compulsory labelling using a traffic light system.  She vowed then that the fight would go on to ensure labelling gave consumers the right kind of information to make healthy choices.