|
|
Rt. Hon. Sir Alan Beith MPLiberal Democrat Member of Parliament for Berwick Upon TweedWorking for you and the Berwick upon Tweed Constituency all year roundin Northumberland and in Westminster |
|
Anti-corruption campaign launched with Paddy Ashdown
May 11, 2009 10:30 AM
Former International diplomat and MP Lord (Paddy) Ashdown, has launched a new EU wide anti-corruption campaign, 'Corruption. We all Pay,' alongside Lib Dem Euro-MP Fiona Hall, who helped initiate the campaign in the European Parliament.
The new campaign www.stopcorruption.eu aims to highlight the billions of pounds worth of money that is robbed from developing countries every year by corrupt government officials. It is estimated that 25% of African GDP is lost to corruption every year. Corruption therefore severely undermines development goals for health and education, as well as leading to the depletion of natural resources.
Fiona is calling for a range of measures to put a stop to high level corruption, including the sharing of lists of officials against whom there is credible evidence of corrupt activity, and action against such officials owning property in EU member states, with a freezing of assets held in European Banks and much tighter regulation of off-shore accounts.
Fiona said:
"The real victims of corruption are the millions of people still without a safe water supply and adequate health services because the funding destined for such projects has been siphoned off by those in power.
"As EU consumers we are all implicated in that process because of the ongoing importation of illegally-sourced minerals and timber. Much tighter controls are needed to stop this.
"I hope that as many people as possible from each of the 27 Member States of the EU will sign the online petition and create political pressure at a national and EU level to get stronger anti-corruption measures introduced."
The online petition is an initiative of MEPs from across the political spectrum in the European Parliament.
A link to the stopcorruption petition website can be found at www.fionahall.org.uk
What would you like to do next?
-
Subscribe for updates
Follow the party's activity on...
- Twitter:
- Liberal Democrats
- Facebook:
- Liberal Democrats
- YouTube:
- Liberal Democrats
-
Help out or donate
-
Tell us what you think