Would-be MEPs, your country and party need you!

Written by Baroness Sarah Ludford MEP and published in Liberal Democrat News on Fri 16th Feb 2007

Having stood as a European parliamentary candidate 3 times in 15 years under first past the post, finally in 1999 with a (reasonably!) fair voting system I realised my main political ambition in life to be elected to represent Londoners as a Liberal Democrat in the European Parliament. I am not recommending such a long haul for anyone who has the same goal now!

On the eve of the EU's 50th birthday, there has never been a more exciting time to be a MEP. The answers to some of the most pressing challenges we face in the UK today are being found in Europe. By working together through the EU, member states and European politicians can influence the events, laws and attitudes shaping today's local and international environment.

This is not just restricted to the economic framework and trade and aid deals which play a fundamental role in our and others' prosperity, but also relates to matters such as sustainability, energy supply, tackling international crime and terrorism, managing migration and (dear to my own heart) constructing a solid framework of the highest respect for human rights, equality and civil liberties. We pool sovereignty in the EU to enhance the ability of all EU countries to deliver democracy, security in its broadest sense, and prosperity - and it works. That's why countries are queuing up to join.

The time has long passed when the EU was merely an issue for British 'foreign policy'. It is pertinent across a spectrum of domestic policies, which is what makes working as a MEP so fascinating. For example, I have been able to use EU laws on 'urban waste water' to force the government's hand in finally addressing the scandalous weekly discharge of tonnes of raw sewage into the Thames. I am also invoking EU air quality legislation to campaign against the government-backed Heathrow third runway.

Despite the government's continued refusal to investigate allegations of British complicity in secret CIA torture flights and prisons, the European Parliament's investigative committee, of which I am vice-chair, has brought to light evidence of suspicious stopovers in the UK by CIA operated aircraft, as well as the apparent involvement of British intelligence officials in the extraordinary rendition of British residents.

If you believed what you read in the tabloids, you would think that we spend most of our time in Brussels cooking up pointless legislation on the colour of ambulances, banning corgis or plotting the demise of the British common law system. Rest assured, we don't. Not that there isn't the occasional harebrained idea, but Liberal Democrats have no hesitation in protesting about Euro-idiocies.

Being a MEP puts you in a unique position: working to hold the EU to account for your constituents, but also using the EU to hold the British (and other) governments to account. The European Parliament is the citizens' voice in the EU and, as MEPs, we are really on the frontline of the British public's views on Europe.

I'm sure some otherwise qualified candidates are put off standing for European elections because Brussels seems very 'remote', but I hope these examples make it clear that it can in fact be very relevant. The dazzling array of acronyms and the EU's institutional set-up (which is actually not complex, with 3 main bodies) may seem intimidating, but you can quickly master the basics. Even local or national government can seem as if 'only insiders need apply' when looked at it from the outside.

The EU does need reform, but that's also why we need more Liberal Democrat MEPs and hence more European candidates! Europe needs politicians who believe in it enough to make it work for the people of Europe.