Influencing the European Union through our votes

By Julia Doxat-Purser, EEA Socio-Political Representative

For the first time ever, 25 nations will vote in the European Parliament elections (10 – 13 June 2004). Many will seize this chance to shape the direction of European Union (EU) politics. Others will be more sceptical, wondering if their vote will make any difference and not knowing how to vote anyway because the Parliament seems too distant and its activities too obscure.

What is the truth? Does an individual's vote make any difference? Will a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) forget all about us after the election? Will our MEPs be able to make any difference to the decisions of the EU anyway?

With proportional representation, individual votes in the June elections will of course influence the outcome in a small way, strengthening the position of your favoured party and its policies. Just as important, our votes may prevent a worryingly extremist party from gaining seats. Our votes may also make a difference in the chances of success for individual candidates of integrity.

Inevitably some politicians care more than others about serving and listening to the public. EEA knows that many current MEPs do take the concerns of their citizens very seriously indeed throughout their time in post. Once citizens have voted, they can watch what their MEPs do, particularly via the Parliament's website, in order to pray, encourage and raise issues with them.

But can the Parliament and an individual MEP really influence the mighty EU? It is not the same as national parliaments but that does not mean that its role is unimportant.

For a start, every MEP participates in committees, can ask searching questions of the Commission (and the Commission must respond) and is occasionally responsible for steering a report through the parliamentary process. 

In EU decision-making, there are three key institutions; the Commission, Parliament and Council of Ministers. In brief, the Commission proposes the ideas and checks that laws are followed. The Council (all the national government ministers) make all the final decisions. The Parliament is in the middle of the process. It can propose its own ideas, which have no legal weight but do have influence. It also gives its view on the Commission's proposed laws. Increasingly, its opinion cannot be ignored as it can threaten to block a law if the Council rejects its amendments. This power of veto gives MEPs tremendous influence over areas as diverse as development aid, education, employment, regional funds, asylum and immigration, environment and anti-discrimination. 

The Parliament has other key powers. The Commission needs its approval for the annual budget. MEPs can, therefore, ask difficult questions about priorities, levels of efficiency and corruption. MEPs can interrogate the Director of the European Central Bank and all the Commissioners. Commissioners only gain their jobs if they win the approval of Parliament. MEPs enjoy reminding the Commissioners that they remain accountable to them. No one forgets that, in 1999, the Commission was forced to resign in order to avoid being dismissed by the Parliament over corruption. 

The Parliament and its MEPs, therefore, clearly exercise a level of power over the EU decision-making process, in particular trying to hold the other institutions to account. However, the nature of democracy and of the European Union means that one vote has a small influence and smaller Member States have less impact than larger ones. Add to this the power struggles between the Council of Ministers, Parliament and Commission and political deals between parties, one must inevitably conclude that voting in the European elections will not necessarily result in the EU going in your chosen direction. However, if we are to be good stewards, seeking to look after this earth as God would want us to, we have to take the opportunity to pray and to vote or we are allowing others to shape Europe 's future instead of us.

In the present European Parliament, there are politicians of integrity in all the main political parties, whose genuine motivation is the creation of a better society. Many of them are active Christians. Our prayer is that, in the new parliament, there will be even more MEPs like this. 

There are several million Evangelicals who will have the chance to vote in June. May God use our prayers, reflection and votes to strengthen his Kingdom across the European Union.

Options for Action

Various possibilities are listed below. Please note that EEA is neither responsible for nor necessarily endorses the content of any website other than its own. 

Prayer

The most important contribution we can make is to pray.

Research

We would suggest that people seek information from more than one source to try and overcome the inevitable biases or errors of particular newspapers or media channels. The European Parliament's multilingual Website ( www.europarl.eu.int ) will give more of an idea of the powers and activities of the institution. It will also be our best way of watching the work of our MEPs once they have been elected.

One option is to look at the actual manifestos of the political groups. You should be able to find these and get a feel for party values and priorities through the European Parliament website ( www.europarl.eu.int/groups ). Please note that most candidates will be members of national political parties. After the election, these parties will then join their European equivalent (e.g. Socialists join the European Socialist Party, Christian Democrats join the European People's Party) or negotiate to create a grouping of parties that feel reasonably comfortable together.

Direct contact with Candidates & Elected Parliamentarians

During the election campaign, we, have the option of writing to candidates or seeking to meet them in order to ask about their views. The EEA has compiled a list of suggested questions that you might want to send to candidates. Alternatively, you could invite them to a public meeting where they would have the option to answer these or other questions in person.

After the election, why not send a card to congratulate successful candidates and promise that you will pray for them? Or could you invite the new MEPs to a dinner in order to show your interest, build connections and (briefly) pray for them?

Ongoing involvement

If you would like any advice about ongoing contact with politicians, socio-political campaigning etc, please contact

Julia Doxat-Purser, EEA's Socio-Political Representative: eea@community-house.co.uk

Alternatively, do contact the Christian organisations that work in Brussels . Among them are the ones with whom EEA is delighted to share an office.

CARE for Europe: www.care.org.uk

Christian Solidarity Worldwide: www.csw.org.uk

EU-Cord: www.eu-cord.org

Or, if you would like to support EEA's Brussels work, please contact Vassilios Tsirbas, the EEA Brussels Representative: natevdim@otenet.gr