VIDEO KILLED THE CARBON FOOTPRINT

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Tue 29th Jun 2010

Liberal Democrat MEP for the North East, Fiona Hall, wants the European Union institutions to embrace video-conferencing as a more efficient and sustainable way of holding meetings.

Commenting after signing a Written Declaration in the European Parliament calling for videoconferences to be used routinely by European institutions, Fiona said:

"Videoconferences are a great alternative to physical meetings: they save time, travel, costs and help to reduce carbon footprints. The quality of videoconferencing has improved greatly over recent years and EU institutions should make a lot more use of these facilities.

"At the Copenhagen Climate Conference last December I was able to speak to students from five schools in Durham via a video-link organised by local pressure group Climate Durham. It was a superb way to share the experience of the negotiations with young people in the North East who were following the event with great interest.

"I will continue to promote the use of videoconferences as a sustainable way to cut down on physical meetings."