I was delighted to speak, along with David Miliband, Gary and Mary Creagh (with an impromptu contribution from Neil Kinnock) at a packed LME meeting at Labour Party Conference yesterday.

The thrust of the debate was on how Europe could help achieve environmental targets, fight climate change, amplify the effectiveness of development policy, boost economic growth, help combat trans-national crime and so on. The proposed Reform Treaty was also mentioned, but aroused little controversy, with no-one opposing it or calling for a referendum. The Sun's bus, spouting fumes and causing traffic jams as it drives up and down the road outside the conference centre, and displaying posters predicting the end of the world as we know it if the treaty is approved, has not impressed delegates.

I wonder how much The Sun has spent on its attempt to sabotage the reform of the EU. Double decker advertising hoardings, thousands of leaflets and the first six pages of today's issue, must constitute one of the most blatent attempts ever to bounce a government into following the agenda of a media baron.

Last night I attended the AGM of Labour Movement for Europe in the House of Commons, followed by a debate on the future of Europe hosted jointly between the LME and the Compass group.

Since LME's relaunch before Christmas, regional branches have been developing quickly in all corners of England, as well as a branch in Scotland. LME members are already finding ways of getting stuck in to debates about Europe, both within the Labour Party as well as in the wider community. If you would like to find out more about the LME's work, then take a look at www.lme.org.uk.

As Chair of LME's European Parliamentary group, I know exactly what role Labour MEPs should be playing. We should all be constantly getting the facts out about Europe and ensuring that the pro-European agenda remains a fundamental part of Labour policy.

I was delighted that Geoff Hoon, the new Minister of State for Europe, was able to attend the LME AGM. As a former MEP, he is ideally placed to oversee UK involvement within the European Union. He stated that LME could play an extremely important role in establishing Labour's European policy, and I'm determined to ensure it does.

Yesterday, the Labour Movement for Europe relaunched as a campaigning organisation in a packed meeting in Westminster. Over 70 members, MPs and peers crowded into Committee Room 6 in the House of Commons to discuss the future organisation of LME and hear keynote speeches from Geoff Hoon and Douglas Alexander.

For too long, LME has been dormant while right-wing anti-Europeans have had their way in Britain. But the question of Britain's engagement with its European partners is far too important for the debate to be dominated by noisy xenophobes. Now is the time for LME to reawaken and rejoin the battle!

Over the coming months, I hope LME will be engaging in debate at every level—in Westminster, in Brussels, and most importantly on the ground in Britain.

At the relaunch event, a new website was also unveiled with a variety of campaign tools designed to support grassroots activists.

We desperately need a progressive pro-European voice to counter the myths and scare stories put about by the Tories and our eurosceptic media. Hopefully, in the future, LME will be that voice!

I only attended the first couple of days of Party conference as this year it clashed with a European Parliament session in Strasbourg. Most years we manage to vote through a Parliamentary timetable that clashes with Tory Party conference - something obviously went wrong this time!

It's all right for MPs of course - they are in Parliamentary recess until October. We MEPs, however, are back in Parliament already in the last week of August.

There are eleven fringe meetings on Europe this year - but not the traditional meeting of the Labour Movement for Europe. Instead, there is an officers' meeting of this organisation, which has been largely dormant over the last few years, and we agree that it needs to be revived. A set of initiatives are planned, including setting up a website and an email list. If any readers of this blog are interested in joining, please send us an email.

Although I miss most of Party conference, I am able to keep up to date on the European side of things thanks to a weblog for New Statesman co-written by my Press and Publicity Officer, Toby Wardman.