Strasbourg, 23/07/2004 (Agence Europe) - Bairbre de Brun, a Northern Irish MEP, and Mary Lou McDonald, an Irish MEP, briefly presented the priorities of their party, Sinn Fein (whose candidates stood throughout Ireland for the recent European elections), to the press in Strasbourg on Wednesday. Ms de Brun (who spoke only Gaelic in the plenary session) started by explaining, in French, that she would normally have spoken in Irish, but that as it is not yet an official language, she and her colleague would speak English. The recognition of their language is an objective of the MEPs, the first Sinn Fein MEPs to take their seats in within the European United Left/Nordic Green Left group. High on their "agenda for change" feature: progress in the Northern Ireland peace process, "Irish unity and independence", equality. If we had to pick just one word to define us, it would be "equality", equality between the people of Europe, said Ms McDonald, who also stressed the elimination of poverty, the role of the UN as a "legitimate forum" for conflict resolution, the Millennium objectives. Ms de Brun added the defence of Ireland's neutrality, and the demilitarisation of Europe.