CAMPAIGN LAUNCH:IRELAND'S NEXT European commissioner should be chosen by the Dáil after it publicly interviews candidates, and not by the Government, the Labour Party has said.
The declaration came as Labour launched its campaign for the European Parliament elections, which the party leader Eamon Gilmore described as “the most important elections to the European Parliament we have ever had”.
Proinsias De Rossa is running in Dublin, Nessa Childers in Ireland East, Senator Alan Kelly in South and former World in Action TV journalist Susan O’Keeffe in North-West.
Mr De Rossa said: “Traditionally in Ireland, Fianna Fáil has used [the European Commission job] to look around their front-bench and see who they want to get rid of, to see who is beyond their sell-by date, or who is causing the greatest headache.” This happened to “the disadvantage of Europe”. “We don’t want another McCreevy,” he said.
The Dáil’s European Affairs Committee should require candidates to outline their beliefs and priorities before a nomination is approved by the Dáil.
Criticising Fine Gael’s stance on the banking crisis, Mr Gilmore said they and Fianna Fáil are making “the one argument”.
“Fianna Fáil’s actions are going to beggar this generation, our children and our grandchildren,” said the Labour leader.
The campaign has illustrated sharp divisions between the two Opposition parties: “I think this contest is very much a contest between Labour and Fine Gael,” he said. “This crisis has highlighted clear political dividing lines in Europe . . . There are conservatives, like Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, who believe we can cut our way out of a downward economic spiral . . . And then there are those progressives, such as Labour and our sister parties in the Party of European Socialists, whose instinct is to do everything possible to save and create jobs. We want a social Europe, not a race to the bottom.”
Mr De Rossa said Labour MEPs will be part of the most powerful grouping in the European Parliament after the election, the Party of European Socialists.
The PES has produced a common manifesto signed up to by its 800-plus candidates in 27 member states, demanding more financial regulation, investment in jobs, and global action to protect the environment.
