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EUROPEAN REVIEW

ISSUE 7 - Page 3

European Parliament swings to right as it gets more teeth

IN THE ELECTIONS for the European Parliament held between June 10th and 13th, there were three main features: a very poor turn-out, a swing to the right among the major parties and an advance by some minor parties such as the Greens. The percentages of voting electors were at record lows in many countries. In Germany the turn-out was at its lowest since 1979 when the parliament was first directly elected, having dropped from 65.7% to 45.2% over that period, even in Italy, which maintained its record of polling in greater numbers than the EU average, the number fell by 4% compared with last time and the U.K. resumed its place at the bottom of the league table, on 24.0%. Spain was the main exception to this pattern in that the proportion of the electorate that voted went up from 59.1% to 64.4%. Even more worrying for the EU, the level of participation across Europe has dropped in every single parliamentary election, starting at 63% in 1979 and finishing at the dismal 49.4% of 1999.

Turn-out figures for European Parliament Elections: EU & UK

The poor figures in the latest poll are puzzling as the implementation of the Amsterdam Treaty on May 1st means that the parliament is assuming greater powers. Having forced the resignation of all 20 EU commissioners in March (see this page in our last issue), parliament also has the power to veto nominations from the heads of government for the commission presidency. It is now endowed with powers of co-decision (laws and regulations have to be approved by both parliament and the Council of Ministers) over all EU legislation and regulation except for agriculture and foreign policy. But even in these two areas, it has wide influence. Foreign policy needs money and MEPs have to approve the EU's budget and judge whether money has been properly spent. The BSE crisis also gave parliament wide authority over food quality and safety standards throughout Europe. MEPs will have the final say over hundreds of items of everyday life, from the maximum noise of lawnmowers to car emission standards, from maximum working hours to whether extra hormones or genetically-modified organisms can get into Europe's food. It is surprising, then, that less than half of EU voters visited the polling station last month.

EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT - KEY TO PARTIES PES - Socialists EPP - Conservatives ELDR - Liberals UFE - Centre-right EUL/NGL - Communists etc. G - Greens ERA - Radicals I-EN - Anti-Europeans IND - Independents ? - Yet to join party

Those that did show enthusiasm seemed to support either centre-right parties or hitherto fringe groups such as the Greens. The centre-right grouping in the parliament (EPP/UFE) increased its numbers to 242 to become the largest, however the conservative block (known as the European People's Party) are still 80 votes short of an overall majority. The Greens went up from 27 to 36 including, for the first time, MEPs from Britain, and the independents, (IND/I-EN) which include some far-right parties such as the National Front in France and anti-Europeans like the U.K. Independence Party, from 53 to 68 (includes '?' in chart). On the other hand the main losers were undoubtedly the socialists (PES) who lost the largest group status that they had held for the last 20 years , declining from 214 to 180. 'This is a historic victory, the first time in 20 years we have more MEPs than the socialists,' declared the conservative outgoing leader, Wilfried Martens. But the real question for the EU is: what is the point of giving the parliament so many new powers of co-decision and of veto if the voters have not bothered to give it much of a mandate?

Developments on bananas as millenium round approaches

AS THE SO-CALLED 'Millenium' round of World Trade Organisation negotiations approaches, the European Union is still considering how to change its rules on banana imports so that they will be acceptable to the WTO. It is hoped that they will then be able to call on the U.S.A. to cancel its sanctions against European goods. On 26th. May the Commission sent the Council of Ministers a communication outlining the options. They are: 1) to remove the quota and apply a flat-rate tariff 2) to retain the existing quotas and remove the limit on preferences for African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries or 3) to establish a new quota, higher than current ACP exports which would have a zero tariff. The communication concludes 'It is clear that there is no solution which is guaranteed to solve the dispute which does not involve major difficulties in relation to the Community's own interests, budget resources and obligations. It is also clear that the Community will have to put forward its solution if it wants to avoid an indefinite continuation of the US sanctions'. With disputes over beef and genetically modified food in progress the EU-US relationship will not be helped by EU calls for the new round of negotiations to have a 'human face' and a social dimension.

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