Catherine Zena Bearder is a British Liberal Democrat politician who served as Leader of the Liberal Democrats in the European Parliament between 2 July 2014 and 12 November 2019.
10 Facts About Catherine Bearder
2.
Catherine Bearder was a Member of the European Parliament for South East England from 4 June 2009 to 31 January 2020.
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Catherine Bearder is married to Professor Simon Bearder, a zoologist at Oxford Brookes University.
4.
Catherine Bearder is President of the Liberal Democrat European Group.
5.
Catherine Bearder was the second placed Liberal Democrat candidate for the European Parliament in the South East region of England.
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Catherine Bearder was elected to the European Parliament on 4 June 2009, and took her seat on 14 July.
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Catherine Bearder was a member of the European Parliament's Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety and the Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality, where she served as her parliamentary group's coordinator.
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Catherine Bearder focused on environmental issues, especially wildlife conservation and biodiversity, and has founded the cross-party "MEPs for Wildlife group" which is calling for an EU Action Plan against Wildlife Trafficking.
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Catherine Bearder was appointed as one of the lead MEPs working on the revision of the National Emissions Ceiling Directive, which was to set national targets to reduce emissions of harmful pollutants.
10.
In 2015, the European Parliament approved an amendment introduced by Catherine Bearder demanding immediate publication of existing inquiries into member states involvement in secret flights operated by the United States Central Intelligence Agency and linked to "enhanced interrogations" conducted outside US territory, in particular the inquiry into UK involvement led by John Chilcot.