John Flack, the new East of England MEP, is one of two new Conservative MEPs to have taken their place in the European Parliament.

John and Rupert Matthews officially became MEPs on 5th June after they were announced by the Parliament’s President.

Having won the Parliamentary seat for Chelmsford in yesterday's general election (with a majority of just under 14,000 votes), Vicky Ford MP has announced she is standing down as an MEP for Eastern England with effect from 12th June 2017.

She released the following statement:

I am in Brussels today where Article 50 is being triggered and formal negotiations between the UK and EU will now start. There is a huge amount of work to be done in the months ahead if we are to achieve an amicable new relationship with the EU and give certainty to people and businesses.

Happy New Year!

Thank you very much to the many hundreds of people who returned my autumn survey and let me know your thoughts and priorities following the referendum.

The European Parliament is back in session – giving Vicky Ford MEP the opportunity to look back over the summer just gone.

Dear Reader
 
I wanted to share some post referendum thoughts.
 

"I've been asked to give an update in some of the work I'm doing as an MEP," says Vicky Ford MEP representing Eastern England.

The sun was shining on us during the last sitting of the 7th legislature of the European Parliament in Strasbourg.  It was an important session as well because many files had to be concluded.  There were so many files in fact that two extra voting sessions were scheduled just so we could get through all of them!

Ukraine was very much at the forefront of everybody’s thoughts this past week in Strasbourg.

While it was not the most important file adopted during the plenary session, the Parliament did adopt a cross-party resolution on the situation in Crimea.