Ireland, like the other 27 member states of the European Union, is governed at several different levels. Here the elections on Friday to the European Parliament coincide with those to the new local government bodies, which may help increase voter turnout. The European elections are also novel this time, since they will directly choose a parliament of 766 members from 28 states, organised in a number of cross-national political groups which have for the first time nominated their candidates for president of the European Commission. The parliament now has greater powers, having co-decision with the Council of Ministers on most EU legislation.
These elections therefore deserve the close attention of Irish voters. They are more aware after the economic and euro crises that the European Union has a large influence on the third and most apparent level of governing in our democratic system, the national one. The 11 MEPs elected in the Republic and the three from Northern Ireland will help determine European policymaking over the next five years. They will link up with other members and groups in what is expected to be a substantially changed parliament, reflecting the social traumas and political upheavals caused by these crises throughout the EU.
On one polling calculation the four main political groups in the outgoing parliament, bringing together centre-right, centre-left, liberal and green parties, making up 80 per cent of its members, will see that proportion reduce to 74 per cent this time around. A more numerous bloc of over 200 MEPs from radical left and far right-wing parties, together with increased numbers of populist nationalists and Eurosceptics, will capture the headlines in many member states and across the EU. Their showing will reflect widespread disillusion at national and European levels with existing political parties and their overly convergent agendas in dealing with problems of unemployment, immigration and economic regulation.
The heterogeneity of the expected newcomers to the European Parliament should not be underestimated. A likely strong showing of the United Kingdom Independence Party in England is not mirrored in Ireland – or Scotland – and should not be extrapolated on to the continental results.
While the French National Front, the Dutch Vlaams Blok or the Italian Lega Nord may do well this new right bloc will not find it easy to link up in the parliament. A stronger showing by the Greek radical left Syriza party and its allies would represent more critical rather than sceptical voices concerning the future of European integration. At all levels established political parties will have to accept a greater role for politics and contention about how far and in what direction it should go. This is a gain and not a loss of democratic accountability.
