Brussels, 30/04/2009 (Agence Europe) - The European Policy Centre (EPC) held a debate in Brussels on Wednesday 29 April on European election expectations five years after enlargement to 10 new member states. The EPC will soon be publishing a survey conducted by Sara Hagemann, EPC Policy Analyst, on the current Parliament and on the impact of enlargement on the way it operates.
Since 2004, the average age of MEPs has fallen from 57.2 to 54.8 years of age and the number of women MEPs has fallen. Parliament has not suffered political slowdown despite the massive enlargement. Over 1,000 laws were adopted between 2004 and 2009, a number similar to that of the previous legislature. The concern that the decision-making process should be speeded up has entailed a rise in the number of first reading agreements and the Parliament, becoming more reactive, has proposed 17 own-initiative reports to the Commission. An increasing number of debates and negotiations take place in parliamentary committee for questions of efficiency, which can prove problematical, says Ms Hagemann, in so far as their members are not necessarily representative of the Parliament as a whole.
According to Joost Lagendijk (Greens, NL), the greatest contradiction of all is that, on one hand, Parliament has become more effective and has seen its powers increase but, on the other, election turnout has fallen and scepticism has increased. The problem is that “almost all Dutch candidates say that they will go to Brussels to defend Dutch interests but that doesn't mean anything - the Green interests are not the same as those of the Christian Democrats”, whatever their nationality, he went on to say. In order to counter the effect of scepticism, it is necessary to demonstrate that the European Union has added value in many areas, which is something the sceptics will have to accept at any rate, but the EU must recognise that there are some areas that must come under the competence of member states. “We must work better with national members of Parliament”, the Dutch MEP concluded.
“How can you put the EU agenda on the citizens' plate if the MEPs have no national visibility?”, asked Daniel Daianu, former Romanian Finance Minister and ALDE member. There are not enough links between the MEPs and their constituencies and the citizens sometimes have the impression that they are being forgotten, he stressed.
During the last European elections in 2004, some of the new member states had a very low turnout, including Poland with only 21% and Slovakia 17%. Some take the view that the low turnout is due to the fact that the public in the new entrant countries lack knowledge of the impact that European policies have at national level. Ms Hagemann told EUROPE that “we only present lists to the voters and they don't recognise the names and don't necessarily understand the parties”. The low turnout rate could be due to several factors, she went on to say: “We must look at the national voter turnout, observe the national political cycle as well as the reactions of the people vis-à-vis the handling of the economic crisis by national governments”. The European Parliament asks people to vote for it but, Ms Hagemann told EUROPE, “people don't want to do that - they want to vote for parties”. Andreas Maurer, Head of the External Relations Research Division for the EU at the Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik in Berlin, said by way of conclusion: “We must bring substance to the debate”. (E.M./transl.jl)