[cma-l] write to your MEP

Tue Oct 1 13:19:14 BST 2013

I don't understanmd how he can occupy a position as an MEP whilst "elected on a platform of withdrawal from the EU"!

His vernacular would also seem to be rather unbefitting of a responsible elected politician.

Date: Tue, 1 Oct 2013 06:49:12 +0100
From: paul at pvg.co.uk
To: cma-l at commedia.org.uk
Subject: Re: [cma-l] Urgent - write to your regional MEPs to support community radio in Europe

I wrote to all 7 MEPs in the Eastern Region. The reply was from UKIP MEP Stuart Agnew who took the approach that I was asking him to promote something pro-EU rather than pro-CR.  He replied:

I am afraid that I am not able to support the pilot project to which you refer because it is clearly yet another attempt at brainwashing and would be completely outside my remit as a UKIP MEP elected on a platform of withdrawal from the EU.  The very title ‘Fostering European citizenship through cultural diversity’ makes it all too clear the objective of this project.  There is no ‘European citizenship’, despite the EU’s many attempts to create one artificially.

As a Party, we do support community radio but it should not be done through large dollops of taxpayers’ money being handed out by the European Union with all sorts of strings attached about promoting its activities and ‘European citizenship’.

I've gone back to him to point out that we're not actually interested in the politics but we just want politicians to support CR - and also asked him to expand on his point of "As a Party, we do support community radio".

Of the other 6 MEPs (4 Con, 1 Lab, 1 LD) I had a supportive message back from the Lib Dem but no reply from the others.

On 30 September 2013 23:01, Martin Steers <martin at martinsteers.co.uk> wrote:

what reply did you get?

On Mon, Sep 30, 2013 at 3:00 PM, Paul Golder <paul at pvg.co.uk> wrote:

Did anyone else get a snarky reply from their UKIP MEP, or was it just us? 

Paul Golder
Phoenix FM
www.phoenixfm.com

On 10 September 2013 13:04, Jaqui Devereux <jaqui.devereux at commedia.org.uk> wrote:

Dear all

Please see below the call from AMARC Europe to lobby your local MEPs to support the proposal to the EU for a pilot project to fund community radio across Europe, including suggested text for an email to them.  We hope as many of you as can will send an email to your MEPs to support this proposal.  A list of your regional MEPs can be found here and their email addresses all use the same format - 1stname.surname at europarl.europa.eu

http://www.europarl.org.uk/en/your_MEPs/List-MEPs-by-region.html

Thanks

Jaqui

Dear Colleagues,

Last July I e-mailed you to ask you to lobby your MEPs to support the Pilot Project presented by the GUE/NGL group in the European parliament in behalf of AMARC Europe. The approval of this project will represent funding for projects carried out by Community Radios at European and National level. You can find all info about the project and the lobbying campaign on http://www.d1186807-19563.cp.blacknight.com/lobby-for-support-for-the-community-radio-pilot-project-proposed-to-cult-committee-of-european-parliament/ . The latest news are not so positive, as the Culture Committee of the European Parliament voted on the EU Budget 2014 on 5 September and the Pilot Project presented by AMARC Europe did not receive sufficient support to pass.

However, there is still a chance for the project to be passed, if approved at plenary level. The decisive vote will be in the Budget Committee on 2/3 October.

The deadline for submitting an amendment to the Budget Committee is 12 September at 12.00. We need you to lobby your MEPs again to ask them to intercede with their European colleagues to support the project. And below I am including the text to send to your MEPs. 

In order to be successful it is important that the amendments are presented (AMARC will look after that) and supported by political groups, and in particular by the larger political groups, like the social democrats (labour party) and the conservative/christian democrat group (Fine Gael). 

Dear XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

On behalf of my organisation ______________________           (name of the radio) I would like to bring your attention to the Pilot Project entitled Community Radios: Fostering European citizenship through cultural diversity and social inclusion and tabled by Marie-Christine Vergiat MEP to the CULT committee.

This Pilot Project concerns the need to foster European citizenship, cultural diversity and social inclusion through cross-border cooperation and reinforcement of the Community Radio sector in Europe in the EU budget for 2014.

Community Media (CM) is now referred to as the “third sector” of media, alongside public and private commercial media. In recent years the European Parliament (2008), the Council of Europe (2009) and UNESCO have declared their support for CM, encouraging the Member States to recognise and develop community media because of its social functions.  We also recall the OSCE Human Dimension Seminar Media Freedom Legal Framework of May 14, 2013, which highlights the need for recognition of the three sectors of communication. 
However, despise the important role of community media in fostering active citizenship, education and cultural diversity, the Pilot Project presented by AMARC Europe did not receive sufficient support to pass when the Culture Committee of the European Parliament voted on the EU Budget 2014 on 5 September. 

However, there is still a chance for the project to be passed, if approved at plenary level. The decisive vote on the amended budget presented by AMARC Europe will be in the Budget Committee on 2/3 October. Community Media in Ireland and Europe would really appreciate if you could share your experience of community radio with the Budget Committee.

-- 
Jaqui Devereux
Director
Community Media Association

http://www.commedia.org.uk/
http://twitter.com/community_media
https://www.facebook.com/CommunityMediaAssociation

t: +44 (0)114 279 5219

Canstream Internet Radio & Video
http://www.canstream.co.uk/

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