The who and how of Euro elections

FROM outlawing mole catcher’s poisons to dangerous toys, the region’s Euro-MPs scrutinise rafts of new laws every year, which impact in some way on every voter in Oldham.

We recycle our waste and grade our vegetables because Europe says so. Euro-MPs have the power to approve, amend or reject nearly all EU legislation.

Yet four in every five voters are likely to stay at home when the Euro-elections are held in June.

Janice Barker found out who’s definitely in and out of the running, and how the eight people who will represent five million North-West voters will be chosen.

EVERY five years voters get the chance to select the parties to represent them in Brussels or the full Parliament in Strasbourg.

Election day for the UK will be a Thursday as usual — June 4 — but three days later for most of Europe, so the final result will only be known on June 7.

Oldham’s record turnout in the 2004 Euro-election — part of the North-West’s 42 per cent — is not likely to be repeated.

Last time, the vote was a controversial all-postal one, carried out alongside the local elections, when all 60 Oldham council seats were being decided after boundary changes.

Five years earlier, at a conventional ballot box election in 1999, turnout for the Europeans was less than 20 per cent. That means for every person who turned out, four voters stayed at home — with four million people deciding not to take part.

At European elections, votes are for parties, not people.

The UK uses transferable votes and the closed list system, which means that each party places its candidates ranked in order.

For example, Greenfield’s Chris Davies, currently the North West’s only Liberal Democrat Euro-MP, tops his party’s list.

Arlene McCarthy is top for Labour and Sir Robert Atkins tops the Tory’s.

So far, the Greens and UK Independence Party (UKIP) have also chosen their lists, but there is time for others to take part as nominations don’t close until May 7.

In 2004, other parties included the BNP, Prolife, Respect, Countryside, plus one independent.

Seats are allocated to parties in accordance with their share of the total vote in the North-West, and to candidates in the order they appear on their party list.

The further down the list the candidate, the less chance of getting a seat.

Dermot Scott, head of the office of the European Parliament in London, said: “A party will have to get around 10 per cent of the vote to have a Euro-MP.

“In 2004, the Greens got one seat with 8 per cent of the vote in a region with nine members, and in the North-West, UKIP got a Euro-MP with 12 per cent of the vote.”

Whatever the outcome, changes are inevitable as three North-West Euro-MPs are standing down.

One is Bury-based Gary Titley, who will step down after 20 years, the last six as leader of the Labour group.

And Oldham-born John Whittaker, the first UKIP member for the region, will also leave after five years.

Tory David Sumberg, currently embroiled in a row over office expenses, is also standing down.

Euro-MP Sajjad Karim was elected as a Liberal Democrat but switched to the Tories part way through his term.

Tory Den Dover, who was second on his party’s list, has been stripped of the party whip by Leader David Cameron after he was accused of expenses abuse and ordered to repay £500,000.

There will also be one less Euro-MP, as the North-West representation drops from nine to eight to make way for Euro-MPs from accession states in Eastern Europe.

Local voters must be on the Oldham electoral register. They have until May 19 to apply if they are not on it, and to apply for a postal or proxy vote.

In the UK we always vote on Thursday — but the rest of the EU has different days.

Only the Netherlands will also use June 4; Ireland and the Czechs vote next day, Malta and Slovakia on Saturday, but the majority of states go to the polls on Sunday.

So the North-West’s Euro-MPs will not be declared until Sunday evening or, more likely, Monday morning.

Expenses and their abuse have been well to the fore in the North-West this year, and all Euro-MPs will face changes to the way they are paid from 2009.

Historically, their salaries reflected MPs’ pay in their home countries — the Italians high, the Latvians a pittance.

Now a new statute has set their salaries at a percentage of a European Court judge’s pay, around £62,000 to £65,000.

And although Euro-MPs can still choose their assistants, and suggest what grade they get, they will be employed by the European Parliament.

The parliament hopes this will prevent cases like Mr Dover.

He was accused of paying about £750,000 in staff and office allowances to a family-owned firm, HP Holdings, directly benefiting his wife and daughter.

An investigation by the secretary general of the European Parliament concluded that Mr Dover’s behaviour had constituted a conflict of interest.

The case has been referred to the European Parliament’s fraud unit.