GREEN MEP for the South West, Molly Scott Cato, ends her first year in office by hitting the stage at the Glastonbury Festival this weekend.

The Stroud-based economist who represents the region in Brussels, is joining celebrity campaigner Charlotte Church, civil liberties activist Shami Chakrabati and veteran politician Ken Livingstone on the bill in the festival’s Left Field, talking politics. 

The group will make up a panel for 2015 WTF!?! Trying to make sense of it all, a debate on Sunday, between 1.30pm and 2.30pm.

A little more than a year ago, Molly was a Green Party councillor, leader of the Green group on Stroud District Council and an economics professor at Roehampton University.

Her election as the region’s first Green MEP followed what she described as ‘a positive campaign, in which Greens were able to offer voters a viable alternative which truly represents their values’.

Now, she sits on the Economics Committee of the European Parliament and is a member of the special committee on tax, tasked with proposing measures to prevent tax dodging.

And she said she aims to use her time at Glastonbury to raise some of the issues that are important to her, as a politician, economist and Quaker.

She will talk about the need to 'challenge the forces of capitalism to save representative democracy’; and how we need to build a genuinely sustainable economy and society.

She said: “It has been an amazing year for me and I feel immensely privileged to be able to represent the people of the South West in Brussels.

"Our region has fantastic resources in our skilful people, our beautiful natural environments, our rich soils, and our fabulous potential for renewable energy.

"I am immensely grateful to have the opportunity to visit so many inspiring places and people when I come home.

"My visits have included exciting and innovative renewable energy projects such as Wave Hub in Cornwall and community owned renewable energy generation projects such as Wiltshire Wildlife Trust’s Solar Array.

"I have met many of the region’s small business and entrepreneurs. I learned much from hearing about the issues affecting small farmers at the Bath and West show and by meeting fishing communities in Devon and Cornwall.

"I have also met with conservationists, for example at Studland Bay in Dorset, who are campaigning for a Marine Conservation Zone."

Her love of the region would remain at the heart of her work in Brussels and beyond.

"As someone who has spent most of my life in the South West, I will continue to do all I can in my role as MEP to work to enhance the economy, environment and society of the region we share,” she added.