Tameside’s Lib Dem MEP has been shortlisted to win a prestigious award for his services to the environment. Chris Davies has been nominated to become a Parliamentarian of the Year for his work in promoting reform of Europe’s common fisheries policy.

All 766 MEPs will now vote to select the winners in each category who will be presented by The Parliament magazine with their awards at a ceremony in Brussels next month.

Chris has led the 85 strong European Liberal Democrat group on the EU Parliament Environment committee since he was elected in 1999. He has been described by WWF, the Worldwide Fund for Nature, as one of the ‘most influential’ MEPs for building coalitions in support of measures to protect the environment.

The MEP formed a cross-party campaign group, ‘Fish for the Future’, which helped to secure the votes of 502 MEPs in favour of ambitious reform.

The new fisheries policy is already being credited with helping to rebuild Europe’s depleted fish stocks. A ban on the discard of fish will be phased in from next year.

Davies said, “Reforming the CFP was a team achievement and I am hugely pleased to have played a part in bringing it about.

“Overfishing and bad practices have cut fish stocks and cost jobs, but we now have fishermen and scientists working together to bring about improvement. The future for fish and our fishermen is looking bright.”

“I was elected as an MEP to work with our European partners to find shared solutions to the problems we face in common. Our new approach to fishing policy shows how successful that can sometimes be.”

Davies’s rivals for the award on the shortlist are French centre right MEP Maurice Ponga and German Green Reinhard Butikofer.