Sharon Bowles MEP

Sharon Bowles (born 1953) is a British Liberal Democrat Member of the European Parliament, representing South East England. She is a highly influential British MEP, serving as Chair of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs.

Before entering the European Parliament in 2005, she "drafted and prosecuted patents for leading edge companies over a wide range of technical fields including integrated circuit design and production, internet technology, satellite equipment, telecommunications" and other technological advancements.

ACTA

Ms. Bowles voted against ACTA.

Copyright Extension

Regarding copyright extension proposals put forward in 2009, Ms. Bowls stated that she did not support the proposals. She went on to state;

"I know the proposal was well meant. But in the digital era, when the way in which recordings are distributed is rapidly changing, why should we make an irreversible change by extending a system that, at its core, still operates with contracts and a structure more relevant to physical distribution and sale? The only hope to rescue that situation is to address the matter of contracts that have become unfair over time, and this has not been done. We should be making it clear that assignments for life without renewal clauses are no longer acceptable and one of the prices recording companies must pay for any extension."

She continued, criticising recording companies;

"[we are coming up to] the end of the current model of recording companies who are, when all is said and done, the main beneficiaries of, and agitators for, this extension."

Broadband

In 2011, Ms. Bowles supported the decision of the European Commission to invest in boosting broadband speed across the European Union. She stated; "With large-scale EU investment these broadband black spots can be a thing of the past. Also, with efforts to supply rural parts of the UK with faster broadband comes the promise of new jobs."