This week, the 626 members of the European Parliament met for the last time in Strasbourg. Fifty per cent of them won't be back at the new parliament on July 20th, through either voluntary or involuntary retirement, so it was a week of tentative goodbyes, great uncertainty, difficult decisions and loads of parties. The MEPs are leaving parliament after a momentous few months in which it increased its powers substantially and brought down the Commission. For those lucky enough to be returned, the first task will be to form committees to grill the incoming commission.
All our outgoing MEPs, bar FF's Mark Killilea in Connaught/Ulster, are seeking re-election on June 11th and they will be joined by a few high-profile contenders, among them Avril Doyle (FG Leinster), Ben Briscoe (FF Dublin), Jim Mitchell (FG Dublin) Proinsias de Rossa (Labour Dublin) Noel Treacy (FF Connaught/Ulster) Joe Higgins (Socialist Dublin) Marian Harkin and, probably, Dana (both Ind. Connaught/Ulster). Not surprisingly, some outgoing members are worried about holding their seats, in particular Greens Patricia McKenna and Nuala Ahern, FG's Alan Gillis and Labour's Bernie Malone.
Pat Cox - the most highly-placed of the Irish as leader of the 42-strong Liberal group and the hero of the Parliament in its battle against cronyism in the Commission - is seen as safe in Munster but he may not be re-elected group leader. The introduction of PR for the elections in the UK is expected to give the Lib Dems considerably more seats than they had in the past and if the British become the largest nationality in the Liberals, they will no doubt seek the leadership for themselves. Ireland elects 18 MEPs - 15 in the Republic and three in the North - but for a country with a huge traditional interest in politics, the turnout for Euro elections has been pretty woeful. In 1994, only 44 per cent of the electorate voted. This compares with a European average of 58 per cent including countries with compulsory voting, and 47 per cent excluding countries with compulsory voting and/or simultaneous general elections. In 1989 we had a big 68 per cent turnout because there was a general election the same day. And why didn't we vote? An astonishing 62 per cent said they had no interest and 37 per cent cited political distrust or dissatisfaction. We were the worst in the first category and only Spain beat us in the distrust stakes. No wonder the Eurocrats here are spending thousands to get us out on June 11th.