Voting for Europe

As Damian O’ Reilly states in this month's Letter from Brussels, the importance of the Parliament has grown hugely in terms of its impact on our lives. Members of the European Parliament now have equal status with the two other pillars of the EU’s decision-making infrastructure – the Councils of Ministers and the Commission. That said, the makeup of the Parliament’s membership is so broad and diverse that finding common ground to advance legislation is often difficult and there is even a lack of common sense among some of the membership, so ideologically extreme are their views and policies. It is a tribute to the majority of its parliamentarians that they can accommodate these diverse interests and still develop policies and legislation of importance and relevance. In the main, Ireland has been well served by the people we send to the Parliament, with occasional exceptions. The Irish electorate has an opportunity in June to select a new cohort of MEPs to represent us there and we must choose carefully. The European Parliament is not a remote entity. It has immense relevance in our daily lives, impacting on areas such as work practices, health, education, taxation and social policy.

For the farming community, the relevance of the European Parliament is particularly strong. By choosing to elect MEPs who understand the impacts of EU legislation on our agri-food sectors, we are at least assured of an informed contribution to debate and negotiation in the Parliament. Outcomes from those debates and negotiations are, by necessity, built on compromise. Even though we will only have 14 members out of a total of 720 MEPs, that does not mean we don’t have influence.
To start at the basics, our members are fluent in English, the common communication language used in the Parliament. That allows us to converse coherently with representatives across the 27 Member States. Many of our outgoing MEPs have shown an ability to subtly influence debates and legislation, securing concessions, raising awareness of negative impacts on the people they represent and highlighting the need to protect food production and farm viability. We should not expect to direct or control legislation coming out of the Parliament. That is not a practical proposition. However, our representatives can protect our interests by developing and using their parliamentary skills to best effect.
Food producers are directly affected by the increasing emphasis in the EU institutions on environmental protection, climate change mitigation, animal welfare and the general movement towards a net carbon zero economy. The recent decision by the European Parliament to enact a piece of legislation to ease the bureaucracy and regulatory impositions embedded in the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) may be seen as a last-minute attempt to placate farmers after months of protests, and to garner votes from farming communities across the EU. The fact that the proposals were passed by a very large majority of the MEPs suggests at least an understanding that the CAP needs a significant overhaul after years of additional regulation have made it overly complex.
Local elections will also be held in June. Local authority interaction with farmers is increasing, with inspections around water quality the most obvious example. Again, we need to ensure that the councillors we elect commit to ensuring that landowners are treated fairly in these interactions. The doorstep canvas is an opportunity for all of us to take personal responsibility for ensuring fair play for farmers.