A vote for a Minority Party or an independent candidate in the European Parliament elections is a waste of a vote.

The EU political structure is very different than that of our Local and National structures. In order to have any, that is any, influence in Europe an elected member needs to be a member of a group and that group needs to be in a position to influence the decisions of the parliament.

This EU election is different than previous elections because the MEPs will now have more power.  They will effectively choose the president of the Commission and with a power of veto, effectively control that Commission.

The Power groups in the EU are basically all “Centre Groups”, of the current 736 MEPs, 449 belong to two groups, The EPP and The S&D with the ALDE having another 84. Total Centre parties (left and right) make up 72.4% of the parliament. Between them these groupings will make all the decisions in the next EU parliament and from there control all decisions made by the Commission.

If the candidates people vote for are not part of one of these groupings, they might as well stay at home and not bother because they will have no representation in Europe.

Before making a decision, people should check which grouping their candidate is, or will belong to. Then check and see if that grouping is one of those with influence. To say it again, anything else is a waste of a vote for a small country like Ireland.

We need influence at the power bases, not people who were elected to protest at our local and National Government. That can be done in the local elections and at the next general election.

The EU is too important to us to waste a vote in a protest that nobody except Irish people will see. We need proper representation at the centre of EU power, let the larger economies (UK, Germany, France) look after the protest groups and the Euro Sceptics

Brendan Palmer is CEO of Electronic Recycling.
An environmentalist,
MBA
BA Law (including European law)