Democracy at home: campaigning for electoral reformEdward is a long- time supporter of electoral reform. He supports both a form of proportional representation for elections to the House of Commons and a fully-elected second chamber.
European Instrument for Democracy and Human RightsEdward was the founder of the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR). In 1990 Edward proposed a European Democracy Fund which gained EP backing by 1992. This EU Democracy Initiative was to become the EIDHR. The EIDHR is the EU's only external aid instrument that can function without host-country consent. For the period 2007-2013 it has a budget of 1,104 million euro. The key objectives of the EIDHR are: Despite being one of the founders of the EIDHR, Edward is highly critical of it, particularly in the respect that as a unique instrument that does not require agreement of third country governments the European Commission usually seek it regardless. Consequently democratisation efforts in these countries are frequently denied by the host-country . Edward is a member of the European Parliament's EIDHR working group which is in contact with the Council and Commission concerning the running of the instrument and the impact of any alternations made to its structure amongst other areas. You can read an authoritative survey of the origins of the EIDHR here. Fighting Climate Change
Edward released a Green Card to mark the event. None of the three eats meat. Here the former Beatle is greeted by European Parliament president Jerzy Buzek. The Green Card has key facts about the worldwide effects of livestock production on climate change: meat produces more greenhouse gases - 18% - than the whole transport sector - 13%. On its reverse it displays a meat-free-day's menu and the nutrients in vegetables. In 2006 a 400-page report by the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) "Livestock's Long Shadow" first identified the livestock industry as the main contributor to greenhouse gases. Edward supports the call by Dr Pachauri, Chairman of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that one meat-free day a week is the most effective way of combatting climate change. This is campaign popularised in the UK by Sir Paul with his Meat-Free Monday campaign. MEPs back Maddie Alert On the eve of the third anniversary of the disappearance of Madeleine McCann in Portugal, a proposal to develop missing child alert mechanisms across Europe, supported by her parents Kate and Gerry McCann, is now well on course with €1 million EU funding. Rights for children in the EU Helping hill farmers | Democracy abroad: reform in China - the world's biggest country
Edward's campaigns include religious freedom, especially for the persecuted Buddha-school Falun Gong, which in 1999 had some 70 - 100 million adherents. Most of the 5 - 7 million prisoners in China's vast gulag are Falun Gong undergoing Reeducation Through Labour. Edward McMillan-Scott started a Europe-wide debate on whether politicians should boycott the Beijing Olympics in response to human rights abuses (see Edward's website www.boycottbeijing.eu) McMillan-Scott - seen below at a London human rights rally - More recently, Edward has campaigned to draw attention to the Charter 08 drawn up by Chinese reformists, led by Liu Xiaobo
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Here he is pictured chairing a packed fringe meeting at the 2009 Conservative Spring Forum in Cheltenham. Other speakers were Peter Facey, director of Unlock Democracy and Havard Hughes, campaigns director for the Electoral Reform Society (seated). 
t UK-wide election under PR, the 1999 Euro-election which saw the Tories doubling their MEP to 36. He opposed the 'closed list' PR system brought in by the Labour government, arguing that it was designed to separate MEPs from the electorate.
He produced the "Euro-PR Card" to introduce Conservative voters to his 'Heineken effect': PR reaches voters that other systems cannot reach. He organised a seminar at Conservative HQ with speakers Vernon Bogdanor and David Butler. The Tory party hierarchy remained stubbornly opposed to PR even when Prof John Curtice showed that it would benefit from PR. Edward held talks with Dominic Grieve and suggested a post-election Conservative PR working group. 
On December 3 2009 Sir Paul McCartney and Dr Rajendra Pachauri - the UN's climate change chief spoke at Edward's major Brussels hearing on Global Warming and Food Policy: Less Meat = Less Heat. 
Following a campaign by Edward and his staff aimed at improving children's rights across the EU, a majority of the 785 MEPs have signed a resolution calling for a US-style Europe-wide Missing Child Alert, promoted by Kate and Gerry McCann (seen here at a packed Brussels press conference). Since 2003, 432 abducted American children have been found - 80 % within the crucial first 72 hours - through the US Justice Department's multimedia alert. Only France has a similar scheme.
A Scunthorpe mother spoke of her "absolute relief" at a custody decision which allowed her daughter, seven-year-old Jessica Ferguson, to stay in the UK. An earlier court ordered the child to return to Spain to live with her Spanish father, a Benidorm nightclub owner. 
subsidies. Whitehall gives our upland farmers the second-lowest handout in the EU: "The way the British government distributes this subsidy does not take hardship into account" said Edward, from a farming background himself.Yorkshire Dales farmers explain how the British government allocates EU subsidies unfairly. Edward McMillan-Scott pledged to try and get the EU to adopt the same upland policy across all of the EU. 
Edward McMillan-Scott is the foremost campaigner for reform and democracy in China. After his most recent visit, to Beijing in May 2006, all the Chinese with whom he had contact were arrested, imprisoned and in some cases tortured until today.
claimed there was evidence of "persecution and genocide" in China. In the event the Presidents of the EU Commission and EU Parliament both boycotted the games, as did the External Affairs Commissioner. 
Edward McMillan-Scott wrote a key report for the European Parliament's foreign affairs committee on the EU-China Strategy in 1997 as the economic boom accelerated. Even then he sought a more political approach with his slogan, "Not just business-as-usual, but also politics-as-usual". He was a frequent visitor to China and was the first politician to visit Tibet after a three-year ban. 
On 28 Dec 2007 Gao Zhisheng's environmentalist friend Hu Jia (left) was also taken away and sentenced to prison for three and a half years. Edward successfully campaigned for Hu Jia to be awarded the European Parliament's 2008 Sakharov Prize for human rights. 
