SE Region Euro Candidates June 2009

From left to right:James Elles MEP, Tony Devenish, Richard Robinson, Sarah Richardson,

Mark Francois MP, Nina Kaariniemi, Marc Brunel-Walker, Therese Coffey,

Richard Ashworth MEP, Daniel Hannan MEP

James Elles, Richard Ashworth, Daniel Hannan & Nirj Deva were successfully re-elected in June 2009.

Daniel Hannan MEP

Website : http://www.hannan.co.uk/

Brussels Phone: 00 322 284 7137

Email : office@hannan.co.uk

or daniel.hannan@europarl.europa.eu

Special Responsibility for Surrey, Kent & Sussex

Daniel was first elected as MEP for the South East region in 1999. He is a member of the Fisheries Committee and of the EU Delegation to Afghanistan.

Daniel has been a Special Adviser to the Rt Hon Michael Howard MP, speech writer for the then Conservative party leader William Hague and Director of the European Research Group. Daniel speaks English, French & Spanish and has been a leader-writer for the Daily Telegraph and columnist for the German newspaper Die Welt.

Born in 1971 in Peru, Daniel was educated at Marlborough and Oriel College, Oxford. At Oxford, Daniel met his wife Sara and they have two young children. His publications include "A Treaty Too Far", "The Euro: Bad for Business", "The case for EFTA" , "What if Britain votes No?" and his latest book, co-authored with Douglas Carswell MP, "The Plan: Twelve Months to Renew Britain", available at http://www.amazon.co.uk/Plan-Twelve-Months-Renew-Britain/dp/0955979900

Danie blogs every day at http://www.hannan.co.uk

Richard Ashworth MEP

5 Hazelwood Rd, Hayward's Heath, RH16 3PH

Brussels Phone: 00 322 284 7309

UK Phone: 01444 474858

Email: rashworth@europarl.eu.int

Website: http://www.richardashworth.com/

Richard was born in 1947 in Folkestone, Kent. He is married with three daughters. Richard was educated at The King’s School, Canterbury and studied agriculture and management at Seale-Hayne College in Devon.

Richard was elected Conservative MEP for the South East Region in 2004. He is Deputy Leader of the Conservatives in the European Parliament. He is Conservative Spokesman on Budgets in the European Parliament and is a substitute member of the Employment & Social Affairs Committee.

As well as having a long-term interest in politics, Richardïs life has heavily revolved round cows. Richard worked extensively in Canada and New Zealand before establishing a farming business in Sussex. He was a dairy farmer in East Sussex for over thirty years and during this time operated his own dairy business. Carrying on this theme, Richard has served as chairman of United Milk PLC.

He has been the chairman of NFU Corporate, the organisation that represents Britain’s farmer controlled agri-business and co-operatives in London and Brussels. He has also been a member of the Minister of Agriculture’s food chain advisory committee.

A particular interest of Richard is Education and he was chairman of Plumpton Agricultural College in East Sussex for 15 years. His commitment to bettering Education and, in particular, vocational learning plays an important role in Richard’s parliamentary work.

Nirj Deva MEP

122 Warwick Rd, West Drayton, UB7 9BX

Brussels Phone: 00 322 284 5245/7245

UK Phone: 0771 566 2236

Email: nirj.deva@europarl.eu.int

Nirj was first elected MEP for the South East Region in 1999. In the Europeran Parliament, he is Conservative spokesman on Development andCooperation. He is a member of the Development Committee and a substitute member on Regional Policy, Tourism and Transport. He was a Special Advisor for Ethnic Affairs to the Rt. Hon. Iain Duncan Smith MP.

Born in Sri Lanka into a political family, but raised in Britain, Nirj Deva was Conservative member of parliament from 1992-97. Here he looks at his aims and first days as an MEP.

He says "There's no doubt that we're faced with new challenges across Europe. It's my ambition to help the Conservatives establish an EU that looks outwards; to encourage expansion, and to deliver our manifesto commitments to ensure that we are in Europe, not run by Europe. To create a freer, less regulated Europe; a Europe more like Britain - open, accountable, entrepreneurial and tolerant - a new Europe that does less and does it better.

As the Spokesman for Overseas' Development and Co-operation, I hope to ensure that EU funds are allocated to help the poorest people in the world. Daily I'm fighting against inefficiencies and delays and for fraud to be eliminated.

I don't want to see increased amounts of money accrued to the aid budget until the resources that have already been promised are better spent.''

Issues of immediate concern include the workings of the World Trade Organisation and discussions on tariff reductions for the new millennium; poverty elimination; global environmental problems; resolving conflicts; landmine clearance, and self-help projects.

He is married with one child.

James Elles MEP

C/o Disraeli House, 12 Aylesbury End,

Beaconsfield, HP9 1LW

Brussels phone: 00 322 284 5951

UK Phone: 01494 673745

Website: http://www.jameselles.com/

Email: beaconsfieldca@btconnect.com

Special Responsibility for Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire

James Elles has been a Member of the European Parliament since 1984. Born in September 1949, he graduated from Edinburgh University with a BSc (hons) in agriculture.

He became a Euro MP after an eight-year career as a civil servant with the European Commission, initially as a Tokyo Round negotiator and latterly as Assistant to the Deputy Director General of Agriculture.

Now in his fifth term, James is the British Conservatives' spokesman on budgetary control. He is the longest serving member of the European Parliament's budgets committee, having been a memebr for the past 25 years. James is also a full member of the budgetary control committee and a substitute member of the foreign affairs committee. He is also a substitute member of the EU-US delegation.

He was rapporteur (the person appointed to steer a measure through Parliament) for the 1996 and 2007 Budget which prioritised a "value for money" approach. To ensure that this aim was achieved, James Elles used a parliamentary device where payment of money within the budget could be held in reserve, conditioning the release of funds for a specific purpose - for example, promoting parliamentary control of the European Commission in banning outside earnings for European Commissioners by withholding their travel expenses.

Recognised for his key role in the downfall of the Santer Commission, his action in this affair was summed up in 1999 by the European Parliament's newsletter: "James Elles has become the unsung hero of Parliament's challenge to the Commission, the man who was in at the birth and the kill of the two-year campaign to establish Parliament's authority over the way public money is spent.''

A linguist, speaking French, Italian and some German, James has been a member of the European Parliament's ski team since 1986. Outside politics, his interests include golf, running, music and gardening. James Elles has a home in the constituency at Great Missenden as well as in Brussels, where his family live.