This week I've been blogging about the seminars that I was involved with at Labour Party Conference in Birmingham. The last seminar I spoke at was on fighting the sex trade in Europe.
By definition, the sex trade and human trafficking are international problems. The European Union is ideally placed to address these issues, partly through enhanced cross-border police cooperation to catch those who profit from human misery.
I also spoke about some of the lessons that we can learn from other European countries. Sweden took a brave decision in 1999 and criminalised the purchase of sex. Sweden has subsequently seen a dramatic fall in the incidence of human trafficking for sexual exploitation.
All Internationalist parties should look at what legislation works well in other countries. I believe we should strongly consider introducing the Swedish model here.
That was the strong message I gave to conference.
This blog will be back on Tuesday.
Showing posts with label Sex Trade. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sex Trade. Show all posts
Wednesday, 19 March 2008
Monday, 17 March 2008
SPRING CONFERENCE
At the end of February I attended the Labour Party Spring Conference in Birmingham. This year I spoke at three seminars on fairly diverse subjects. One seminar was on education, one on campaigning on the web and the third was on fighting the sex trade in Europe.
Education is not normally an area where the EU gets directly involved. It is rightly up to individual countries to decide on their educational priorities. But there are a number of areas where EU cooperation can help. As Labour's spokesperson on Culture, Youth and Education in the European Parliament, I spoke about what Labour MEPs are doing to boost cooperation in the field of education.
ERASMUS is one of the EU's flagship education schemes. It allows university students to spend up to one year studying abroad. Needless to say almost everyone who opts to take an Erasmus year comes back with a broader outlook on life, enhanced language skills and increased employment prospects. It's sad then that the Tories recently voted against increasing the grant for students who take part in the scheme.
Europe has traditionally excelled in pure science but we have a poor record at translating this into useful innovation, particularly when compared to the United States. I spoke about the benefit we can get out of the proposed European Institute of Technology.
Finally, I also talked about some of the work we're doing to ensure that university degrees from one member state are recognised in another. More and more graduates are seeking work in another country. Mutual recognition of degrees will surely help their employment prospects.
I'll write more on the other two seminars tomorrow and Wednesday.
Education is not normally an area where the EU gets directly involved. It is rightly up to individual countries to decide on their educational priorities. But there are a number of areas where EU cooperation can help. As Labour's spokesperson on Culture, Youth and Education in the European Parliament, I spoke about what Labour MEPs are doing to boost cooperation in the field of education.
ERASMUS is one of the EU's flagship education schemes. It allows university students to spend up to one year studying abroad. Needless to say almost everyone who opts to take an Erasmus year comes back with a broader outlook on life, enhanced language skills and increased employment prospects. It's sad then that the Tories recently voted against increasing the grant for students who take part in the scheme.
Europe has traditionally excelled in pure science but we have a poor record at translating this into useful innovation, particularly when compared to the United States. I spoke about the benefit we can get out of the proposed European Institute of Technology.
Finally, I also talked about some of the work we're doing to ensure that university degrees from one member state are recognised in another. More and more graduates are seeking work in another country. Mutual recognition of degrees will surely help their employment prospects.
I'll write more on the other two seminars tomorrow and Wednesday.
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