MEP AWARDS 2007

Struan Stevenson has worked as an MEP since 1999. Since his first year in Brussels he has immersed himself in agricultural and fisheries issue, serving as UK Spokesperson on Fisheries from 1999 onwards. He was elected President of the Fisheries Committee in 2002 and when re-elected to Parliament in 2004, he was appointed Conservative Frontbench Spokesman on Fisheries, and Deputy Spokesman on Agriculture. He used his position to fight against the European policy of 'discarding' caught fish.

Over the years he has also campaigned to attract aid for the victims of the Soviet nuclear testing programme in Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan. His work in this area won him an Honorary Doctorate and the Freedom of the City of Semipalatinsk.  Stevenson has also fought to ban the importation of cat and dog fur into the EU and has pressed member states to stop subsidising European tobacco growers. Stevenson is a member of the Agriculture and Rural Development Committee.

The Italian MEP is credited with guiding Europe's REACH legislation through Parliament. The regulatory framework for the Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals (REACH) occupied almost four years of Sacconi's political life. Following two years of negotiation on the Commission's original proposal and after the European Parliament's first reading, member states reached a common position in June last year, thanks in part to Sacconi's hard work as rapporteur.

With REACH now behind him, the Italian is chair of the Climate Change Temporary Committee. The committee was set up to keep the issue of climate change high up the international agenda. Sacconi is also a member of the Russia delegation. He has been working in politics for more than 30 years. He was first elected an MEP in 1999.

Karl-Heinz Florenz is a member of the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety and part of the Temporary Committee on Climate Change. The newly formed climate-change body will assess the EU's future policy ahead of new negotiations on the issue due in 2012. It will publish its report in May 2008. The German MEP served as chairman of the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety between 2004 and 2007. During that time, Florenz was involved in the implementation of EU food safety law in member states.

He also channelled his efforts into securing restrictions on the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment. Most recently he has used parliamentary debates to press EU member states to do more to promote recycling. Florenz has a wealth of agricultural knowledge having worked as a farmer.