What is a written declaration?

A Written Declaration is the European Parliament’s equivalent of an Early Day Motion at the House of Commons. It is a statement of policy, sponsored by as many as five MEPs, which is placed before the Parliament for signature. Any MEP can sign up if they support the Written Declaration and would like it to become the official position of the European Parliament. More than half the MEPs - currently 366 - need to add their signatures for this to happen and it is rare for a Written Declaration to be successfully adopted. More usually, they simply lapse after three months but are used as way of launching or relaunching debate on a particular subject and, crucially, raising its profile with the media and public.

EU residents can influence the outcome of a Written Declaration by lobbying MEPs and asking them to sign up.. Find your MEP here - just click on the map of the UK and your European electoral region (eg South-East) to see a list of your MEPs and their email addresses.

To see a complete list of current and archived Written Declarations, click here to visit the European Parliament’s web pages.

Since she was first elected as an MEP, Caroline has sponsored Written Declarations on a range of subjects, including human rights abuses in West Papua and  the need to ban energy inefficient lightbulbs. You can access these Written Declarations by topic via the animal rights, environment and health, food and farming, human rights, international trade and development, peace and anti nuclear or transport and aviation pages.

During the 2004-9 Parliamentary term, two of the Written Declarations Caroline has sponsored have won massive support from other MEPs.

Written Declaration on banning seal fur imports

A record 425 MEPs out of a possible 731 suported calls to end the trade in seal products -  at the time, the highest ever level of support given to a Written Declaration. Wiith such massive cross-party support Caroline is optimistic the call for a ban will be speedily and completely implemented into EU law. She hopes this  will help save the lives of the hundreds of thousands of seals clubbed to death every year for fur and oils sold in the EU, often to unsuspecting consumers. The text of  the WD has been submitted to the president of the Parliament and the European Commission has begun work on drafting legislation.

Written Declaration on the abuse of power by supermarkets

This was adopted in January 2008 and Caroline very much hopes that the Commission will heed calls for a full investigation into the impact that supermarkets are having on small businesses, consumers, suppliers and workers.