GREEN Party MEPs Caroline Lucas and Jean Lambert have the joint best voting record on environmental decisions at the European Parliament, according to study published by a consortium of NGOs today.
They were named joint 1st out of the EU's 685 MEPs, according to research published by Europe's largest environmental group Friends of the Earth.
Dr Lucas, South-East England's only Green Party MEP and a member of the European Parliament's Environment Committee, said: "Of course I am delighted to have been named joint best MEP on the environment - but I am hardly surprised.
"Protecting the environment is a key element of sustainability and, as such, is a core Green value and central to what we are all about.
"The EU is responsible for almost 90 per cent of all environmental legislation in the UK - and Greens in the European Parliament are working hard to ensure the environment remains a key EU priority and this legislation offers the best protection possible."
Jean and Caroline each scored 100 per cent - as they consistently voted for environmental improvements on ten key issues chosen by environmental organisations: agriculture, air pollution, chemicals, GM food, liability, nuclear power, recycling, renewables and transport.
The Liberal Democrats came second to the Greens nationally - with a rating of 99 per cent on the votes surveyed. Labour scored 70 per cent, the Conservatives 13 per cent and the UK Independence Party 0 per cent - having failed to vote for a single environmental improvement measured in the survey.
Mrs Lambert, London's Green Party MEP and a member of the Employment and Social Affairs, Civil Liberties and Petitions Committees, added: "The Liberal Democrat record on these ten issued analysed today was almost as good as the Greens - but a deeper analysis would have shown their attempts - often in league with the Conservatives - to undermine environmental protection.
"They have, for example, opposed regulations keeping sewage out of our bathing water, arsenic pollution out of the air we breath, greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere and packaging out of landfill sites.
"At the end of the day a party whose economic policies are rooted in the desire to see ever more GDP growth - and enhanced free trade between nations - cannot really claim to be taking sustainable development seriously or making environmental protection a priority."
ENDS
Notes to Editors
7 Full details of the research can be found at www.EU-votewatch.org
7 UK MEPs came bottom of the league - scoring an average of just 49 per cent on voting for environmental protection - compared with Danish MEPs who came top wit h 84 per cent. 7 Percentage scores are calculated on the number of times MEPs voted positively - out of the total number of times they voted.
7 The NGOs involved in selecting the key issues and votes were Friends of the Earth, WWF, Greenpeace and Birdlife
For more information please contact Ben Duncan
on 020 7407 6280, 07973 823358 or press@greenmeps.org.uk