Dominic Hannigan (Meath East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank Ms Lynch for those comments. This is a very interesting week because of the choice of the next President of the European Commission. It would not be the first time that somebody has been vetoed. Britain aspired to have Chris Patten elected at the beginning of the decade and that was vetoed by its Gallic neighbours.
In respect of the spitzenkandidat, we had many meetings here in advance of the European Parliament elections and people said that having a lead candidate from each party would help to raise awareness among the population at large and make the elections more democratic. Deputy Byrne, Senator Noone and I attended the meeting of the Conference of Community and European Affairs Committees of Parliaments of the European Union, COSAC last weekend in Athens. We discussed the outcome of the European Parliament elections. One of the draft conclusions was that COSAC welcomed the success of the spitzenkandidatas a concept but we removed that conclusion because the feeling across the room was that it was not a success. It may have been a move in the right direction but it certainly could not be called a success. I would be surprised if 5% of the Irish population could name Mr. Juncker, Martin Schulz or Guy Verhofstadt. I do not think their names have crossed over into common parlance.

It was a positive move in the right direction but I do not believe it could be described as a success. It did not make that much difference when it came to the turnout but it is something from which we can learn.

The way the advent of the new MEPs from the far left and far right could lead to some fragmentation of behaviour within the Parliament was mentioned. Many of us as parliamentarians believe there has been a shift in power in the European Parliament since Lisbon II. Moves are under way between myself and my fellow chairmen of EU affairs committees across Europe to try to increase the power of national parliamentarians. If there is fragmentation at European Parliament level it might give national parliaments an opportunity to increase our overall power within the structures of the Union. I would be interested to hear the witnesses' views on that.