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You are here: Home Life in News Focus Image problems for EU parliament ahead of elections

03/06/2009Image problems for EU parliament ahead of elections

Low attendance rates and transparency, high expense claims and running costs -- European parliamentarians are battling a negative image ahead of EU elections.

Brussels - The parliamentarians are working hard to show a more caring, committed face, and to make the point that the work they do is increasingly important for all European voters.

But the image they are fighting, as they head into elections throughout Europe on June 4-7, is of a gravy train running between the parliament's two seats in Brussels and Strasbourg.

For French Socialist MEP Gilles Savary the chamber has a key role to play in passing laws drawn up by the European Commission, and as the only elected EU body.

However, he admitted that in some EU nations the European parliament is seen as a second-class legislature fit for retired or idling politicians and minor celebrities.

"We have to live with this sort of thing," echoed British Labour member Richard Corbett. "It's what happens in some countries and some parties."

Out of 78 French MEPs elected in 2004, 67 will complete their mandate. The others have fled the European project the moment an alluring national role was dangled in front of them.

A similar ethos can be seen among Italian members of the European parliament.

In comparison, 92 of the 99 Germans elected and 74 of the 78 British MEPs have remained faithful to their European mandate.

"On the whole, the European parliament is made up of serious people, with plenty of experience," Corbett assured.

That is not an opinion shared by veteran Italian MEP Jas Gawronski, who first won a seat in 1979 and is a member of the centre-right European People's Party, the biggest political grouping in the parliament of almost 800 members.

In a recent interview with the Corriere della Sera he didn't mince his words.

"A third of those elected are bone idle. They follow nothing, they understand nothing and the tarnish the image of the institution.

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