Preceded by Position established Political party Labour Party Labour Party Nationality British Role British Politician | Succeeded by Position abolished Name David Martin Preceded by Ian Dalziel | |
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Books The Glasgow School of painting | ||
David martin labour mep gives his opinion on scottish independence if hard or soft brexit
David Martin (born 26 August 1954 in Edinburgh) is a British Labour Party politician, and member of the European Parliament (MEP) for Scotland. He is the UK's longest serving MEP and the second longest serving MEP in the whole European Parliament.
Contents
- David martin labour mep gives his opinion on scottish independence if hard or soft brexit
- Work in the European Parliament
- International Trade Committee INTA
- Animal Welfare
- Scottish Politics
- Personal life
- References
He was educated in Edinburgh at Liberton High School. He was first elected as a councillor in 1982, and won the Lothians seat in the 1984 European Parliament elections. He retained his seat, and following a reform of the electoral system, was in 1999 elected to represent the whole of Scotland along with other members.
He was elected in 1987 as the youngest ever leader of the British Labour delegation of MEPs. He was Vice-President of the European Parliament from 1989 to 2004, the longest period anyone has served in that position. In 2002 he was the defeated Socialist candidate for President of the Parliament.
Work in the European Parliament
He was the European Parliament's rapporteur on what became the Maastricht and Amsterdam Treaties.
International Trade Committee (INTA)
Mr Martin is currently the coordinator and spokesperson for the Socialists and Democrats Group on the INTA committee.
As well as this role, he is rapporteur for the Singapore FTA - which has been negotiated but is currently subject to a challenge in the European Court of Justice - and standing rapporteur for the ASEAN-5 countries.
He was the rapporteur for the ACTA treaty, stepping in after the original rapporteur, Kader Arif, resigned in protest. In April 2012, Mr Martin recommended that the European Parliament reject ACTA, on the grounds that civil liberties were not adequately protected. Mr Martin's recommendation was adopted by the Parliament in the biggest ever defeat of a legislative proposal from the European Commission - 478 MEPs voted against ACTA, 39 in favour, and 165 abstained.
In 2013 he was voted MEP of the year in the international trade category by the Parliament Magazine.
He was the rapporteur for the UN Arms Trade Treaty, encouraging member states to ratify the treaty and pushing for the EU to lead strict global implementation of new rules for greater transparency and responsibility in the arms industry.
Animal Welfare
Mr Martin is Honorary Vice-President of the Animal Welfare Intergroup, a cross-party group of MEPs striving for animal rights.
He was instrumental in the 2009 Seal Regulation, which bans the sale of seal products in the European Union. It has been estimated by the Humane Society International that in Canada around 250,000 seals have been saved per year as a result of this ruling. This was reinforced by a landmark WTO ruling following a challenge to the EU legislation by the Norwegian and Canadian governments.
Scottish Politics
Following the Brexit vote of 23 June 2016, he was invited to join the First Minister's Standing Council on Europe, a cross-party body which offers advice to the Scottish government on how best to protect Scotland's relationship with the European Union. In contrast to England and Wales, Scotland voted firmly in favour of EU membership by 62% to 38%.
In a video he explained, "she [First Minister Nicola Sturgeon] assured me this would be an all-party and no-party, a pro-independence and an anti-independence grouping, that there would be no bias one way or the other. Our job is simply to look at what would be best for Scotland in the new situation that we face".
Personal life
Married to Lorraine Davidson with two children. He has two children from a previous marriage.