After watching the BBC NI Politics Show election special earlier on, I was still left with some questions about the stances of the candidates on some European issues. Since I have posted a plea for people to vote, I thought I should contact the candidates myself and ask them a few questions. The 5 questions I asked are:
An important task of the European Parliament is to confirm the next Commission. As an MEP, will you back or oppose a second term for Barroso and why? If you oppose him, is there an alternative you would support and why?
The CAP is an important issue, and there seems to be a lot of talk about its reform. What would you like to be done differently, and what aspects of CAP would you retain?
The Common Fisheries Policy has been widely criticised. What would you like to see being done differently, if anything?
Financial regulation has become a big issue because of the recession. How do you think the EU should (if at all) regulate the financial services? Do you support the Larosiere report?
What do you think will be the most important issues for you as an MEP?
I also told them about my blog and asked permission to reproduce their replies. I'll use this post as a contents page for the replies I may receive, and I'll edit it to say if a candidate has replied, but for some reason doesn't want to have their answers reproduced, in the interests of fairness.
Candidates:
- Ian Parsley
- Jim Nicholson
- Jim Allister (Jim Alister's office emailed me after the elections directing me to their website for their policies).
- Alban Maginness
- Steven Agnew
- Bairbre de Brún
- Diane Dodds
I'd like to thank all the candidates who replied, especially since I emailed so close to the polling day.
Good questions; the possible answers should be read by many.
ReplyDeleteThanks.
ReplyDeleteI tried to keep the list as short an snappy as possible so that it would be easier for them to reply, though good answers may need some explanation.