State of the Union »

• How Europe conquered the final frontier

  June 3, 2009 @ 6:35 pm | by Jamie Smyth

   

  You have to hand it to the Belgians: they really do love Europe.  

  With mounting fears that the elections will be marked by poor turnout and a resurgence of euroscepticism they are pulling out all the stops to try to get the European electorate to cast a vote. Belgian astronaut Frank De Winne today beamed a message to earth from outer space urging people to go the polls!  

  “I have arranged to vote by proxy, so I won’t miss out on the next European elections while I’m up here. I hope you will also vote, wherever you are and whatever political views you have” said De Winne, who was launched last week from Baikonur, Kazakhstan, on a mission to the International Space Station.

  De Winne, who will be the first European to command the space station, said the elections matter because: “Europe improves so many parts of our daily lives from environmental protection to consumer rights, from transport safety to the free movement of people, Europe is about the well-being of its citizens”.

  In Belgium voting is compulsory so his message was clearly designed to appeal to other electorates. Slovakia claimed the crown for the lowest turnout in the last European elections with just 17 per cent of people registering a vote. But turnout has slipped in every single European elections since the parliament became directly elected in 1979.

  A Polish diplomat I spoke to this week said he feared less than 20 per cent of people would show up at the polls while turnout in the crisis-torn Baltic Republics Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania could also be low.  

  In Ireland turnout is expected to be relatively high with voters motivated by a desire to give the Government a bloody nose. A recent poll commissioned by the European parliament predicted a 66 per cent turnout in the Republic, which compares to an European average of 43 per cent.  

  Given that the parliament has increased its powers considerably since 1979 when 63 per cent of Europeans voted, a failure to beat the 45.5 per cent turnout recorded in 2004 will be a big disappointment for the EU.

  MEPs are the only directly elected politicians sent to Brussels to work on EU affairs and therefore provide an important democratic legitimacy to the whole European project.

• So what do our MEPs get up to?

  May 14, 2009 @ 3:27 pm | by Jamie Smyth

   

  With just three weeks to go before the elections tempers are beginning to fray.

  I’ve spent the last three days arguing with a Sinn Fein press officer about Mary Lou McDonald’s attendance record. She had the worst attendance rate of all 13 Irish MEPs in the last parliament, according to a website votewatch.eu launched this week.    

  It said she attended 57 per cent of plenary sessions over the past five years while Fianna Fail’s Brian Crowley got top marks by attending 94 per cent of sessions.  Sinn Fein threw a wobbly at the statistics and forced Votewatch to take down her attendance record, arguing that the website did not take account of her six months maternity leave in 2006.  

  Fair enough. Everyone has the right to take time off work to have a child. Sinn Fein says that her real attendance figure is 73 per cent, however which still ranks Mary Lou well behind the second worst attendee Fianna Fail’s Eoin Ryan at 83 per cent. But just when I thought this row was dying down the parliament’s own website today finally decided to cough up the official statistics on all 785 MEPs attendance records. And you’ve guessed it, the parliament says Mary Lou’s attendance was 56 per cent! Although a note in the press release says the data does not take account of “justified leave”.   

  The truth is the parliament has been dragged kicking and screaming to providing attendance records in an easy accessible format for voters to scrutinise for fear of “naming and shaming” articles. But the launch this week of votewatch.eu, which uses official parliament statistics, forced its hand.

  Since this blog entry has mostly been about naming and shaming- Italian MEPs have the worst attendance record on any member states at an average of 71 per cent while Austrians are best in class at 92 per cent. See the full list here. 

  Over the next three weeks, if my temper doesn’t fray too much, I’ll endeavor to keep you posted on the campaign across Europe. Jamie