Catherine Bearder (ALDE). - Mr President, just a few months ago I was aboard the Greenpeace ship, the Arctic Sunrise, when it came to Hastings in my region, and I met many of the crew. So it came as a shock to find that 30 activists aboard that ship had been detained by the Russian authorities, including a constituent of mine, Phillip Ball.

Thankfully, the news is that the piracy charges have been dropped, but of course this still has to be confirmed. All they had been doing is peacefully protesting and highlighting the risks and dangers inherent in oil extraction in the Arctic regions. They were speaking for all of us who, after the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, worry about extraction in even more vulnerable parts of the globe. It is now important that we do all we can to ensure that the 30 are treated according to decent standards or, better still, released with all charges dropped.

That is why I am calling on Baroness Ashton to press the Russian authorities on this issue and to use the forthcoming Foreign Affairs Council on 21 November to create a coordinated EU position. That way, at their next detention hearing in November, we can start to secure their release, get them home for Christmas and start working with Gazprom to really ensure safe exploration in the Arctic.