New Web-service sheds light on MEPs’ Activity
A NEW European Parliament website has been set up ahead of next week’s Euro elections to allow voters to spy on their present Euro representatives and discover how hard-working they really are.
EU residents in Cyprus will be going to the polls on June 6 to vote for their MEPs. The number of MEPs is roughly representative of each constituent state’s population percentage within the EU. Cyprus has six. MEPs then go on to become part of larger pan-European parties that are seen as the most appropriate allies to the local party that they are members of.
The website, which includes an entry for each individual MEP, catalogues their attendance at plenary sessions (full sessions of EU parliament) along with a range of other quirky political statistics. Below is a summary of their activities, including notable quotes for those we thought worthy of mention.
Adamos Adamou, AKEL
Adamou is a member of the Confederal Group of the European Left-Nordic Green Left party.
His attendance record at parliamentary plenary sessions is very high at 90 per cent, and he has voted in favour of 48 motions including a range of initiatives designed to combat the spread of HIV/AIDS, the banning of cluster munitions from armies’ arsenals, the alleviation of problems facing refugees in the world, and the establishment of a ‘Union of the Mediterranean’, which would entail closer ties between the countries of the Mediterranean and Europe, and could in the future pose an alternative to full Turkish EU membership.
He is a member of the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety, and a substitute on the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs.
He has also delivered a number of speeches to plenary sessions of the EU parliament, a number of which have urged drastic action on the loss of eco-systems.
Panayiotis Demetriou, DISY
A member of the Group of the European People’s Party (Christian Democrats) and European Democrats, Demetriou is pretty firmly centre of the right. Demetriou’s attendance record in plenary session is again very high at 92 per cent. He is a member of the Committee on Justice, Civil Liberties and Home Affairs, and has made motions for a grand total of three resolutions, which concern the status ‘of missing persons in Cyprus’, on ‘the natural disasters of the summer of 2007’, and most recently, on ‘the development of an EU criminal Justice Area’.
Notable Quote(s):
On the use of the EU Flag, Demetriou had this to say: “Unfortunately, there have been unjustified reactions from both Member States and citizens. These are reactions from Member States that think that adopting and promoting the symbols of the EU will lead to the creation of a super-state. For heaven’s sake, will symbols really create the super-state that some Members have talked about?”
Ioannis Kassoulides, DISY
The man who failed in his presidential bid to President Christofias last year is also a prominent MEP. He is part of the same EPP bloc as Demetriou, yet has an attendance record in plenary sessions of significantly lower proportions at 77 per cent, possibly as a result of his preoccupation with presidential aspirations in 2008. He is the vice-chairman of the delegation for relations with the Palestinian Legislative Council, which has led him to motion in favour of 18 resolutions that have urged the unrestricted flow of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, and other resolutions such as demanding freedom for the previously kidnapped BBC Journalist Alan Johnston, and expressing concerns over Guantanamo Bay. He is also a member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs and of the Delegation to the Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly
Notable Quote:
In a speech delivered to the parliament during a debate on a progress report of Turkey’s EU accession aspirations on May 21 2008, Kassoulides stated, in response to the attempt to outlaw the ruling AK Party: “Military coups are now old-fashioned and are being replaced by a coup d’état by the judiciary. It is unbelievable that the constitution and laws allow the judicial overthrow of the government democratically elected by 47 per cent of the people, for a charge totally disproportionate to the requested sentence compared with EU, Council of Europe or Venice Commission standards.”
Yiannakis Matsis, DISY
Another MEP from Cyprus adds to the EPPs numerical supremacy in the parliament is Matsis whose plenary attendance record is the lowest for all of the six Cypriot MEPs at 65 per cent. He has motioned in favour of two resolutions, one on natural disasters, and the other on forest fires and floods. He is a member of the Committee on Regional Development and of the Delegation to the EU-Turkey Joint Parliamentary Committee.
Notable Quote:
In one of a few speeches he has made since 2007 to the parliament Matsis posed this question during the ‘question time’ session of parliament on March 21, 2009:
“I have supported the integration of Turkey into Europe since the days of President Ozal and I still support it today. In the fourth interstate application, the Court of Human Rights ruled that Turkey is responsible for usurping Greek Cypriot property. What, at long last, is to be done? How are we supposed to put up with this situation year after year? Are there first- and second-class human rights or does their application depend on the size of the country?”
Kyriacos Triantaphyllides, AKEL
A member of the same European Left Party as his comrade Adamos, Triantaphyllides is also the chairman for the Delegation for Relations with the Palestinian Legislative Council. He is actively involved in trying to push for a sovereign Palestinian State, but is also highly involved in trying to force action on the problems facing the refugees of the world, as well as the decommissioning of landmines and the banning of cluster munitions under international law. He holds the second highest percentage of attendance for any of the Cypriot MEPs, with 95 per cent.
Marios Matsakis, Independent
The undisputed king of controversy and of the MEP stat league, Matsakis holds one of the highest attendance percentages in the whole of the European Parliament, with a superhuman 98 per cent over his five-year term.
He has motioned in favour of a whopping 245 resolutions, encapsulating a plethora of prominent subjects such as the freedom of journalists and women’s rights, as well as pretty much all those mentioned in the previous profiles, and other, more obscure issues such as the political situation in Madagascar, animal rights and the death penalty in Nigeria.
He has become known as quite a maverick, a reputation earned by actions such as climbing up a Turkish Military outpost’s flagpole and capturing the flag, which he then delivered to a group of Turkish journalists after his planned initial recipient, Turkish PM Erdogan, “wasn’t available”. He also had the corridor leading up to his office plastered in gay and lesbian rights posters by fellow MEPs who did not appreciate his attitude on the issue of adoption for gay couples.
Notable Quote (s):
On May 5, 2009 in a debate on the democratic process in Turkey:
“We have founded a lot of our efforts and based many of our policies on the hope that by being nice to Turkey this country will change its Kemalic fascism into democratic-like behaviour that is just about acceptable. We were absolutely wrong and have rapidly become desperately disappointed and frustrated. The democratic reform process in Turkey has been moving with the pace of a three-legged turtle. Commissioner, we and the vast majority of the European citizens we represent have run out of patience. We have had enough. The governing regime in Turkey has proven itself totally incapable
and unwilling to get its country into the state of a 21st-century civilisation. Commissioner, the carrot technique has failed gloriously and you have to admit it. The time has now come to use the stick”
…and something a bit more novel from a debate in Strasbourg on January 15, 2009:
“Mr President, diet is known to be an important contributor to good health. There is now indisputable scientific evidence that the Mediterranean diet – based on the traditional dietary intake of citizens of the southern parts of Europe, such as Crete and Cyprus – leads to a longer and healthier life, whereas the American-influenced junk food diet – such as industrially processed hamburgers, chips and sweets – leaders to a shorter life and one more affected by disease. Good diet is especially important in children. So, will the Commission do more – far more – in order to make sure that Member States effectively promote the Mediterranean diet in schools and even ban the use of diets proven to cause damage to children’s health in such institutions?”
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