It's as easy as MEP.....or is it?

By Dónal Hassett

If all the coverage of the upcoming June 5th elections and especially all the talk of gravy trains and wine receptions have piqued your interest, you may well be interested to learn that the requirements for candidacy may well put an end to your hopes of going to Brussels.

The Irish elections regulations grant the right to vote to any Irish citizen or resident EU citizen in the European elections while any resident EU citizen and Irish citizen (provided they have not been stripped of their rights by community or national law) may stand as long as they are not standing in any other Member State. So far so good- but before you rush away to plan your campaign for 2014, there remains one perhaps insurmountable obstacle on the path to European glory- your age!

If, like this journalist, you are in the first flush of youth and have yet to reach the tender age of 21, Irish electoral legislation precludes you from throwing your hat into the ring.

EU electoral law allows each Member State to set their own legal requirements for candidates to the European Parliament. Thus, the Irish government is under no legal obligation to exclude the 18-21 year olds who are full citizens of the Union and yet have no right to stand for its only directly elected office. While our near neighbours in Britain share this restriction, many countries including Europe’s largest, Germany, the Scandinavian countries and Spain, recognise the legal equality of citizens before the law and entitle all citizens who have reached 18 to stand for Parliament.

In this writer’s opinion, there is no moral or political justification for legally ensuring that young candidates cannot have a go at a European seat and this regulation reinforces the impression that the European Parliament remains an 'old-boys’ club. Why should young people be interested in an election in which they are not even eligible to stand? While supporters of the restriction claim that the important role of an MEP requires a level of maturity which does not exist among 18-21 year olds, the mud-slinging of the current campaign does not testify to the maturity of many European candidates and anyway, surely it is up to the electorate to decide who is mature enough to represent them.

It is high time that this outdated law is changed so that young people can really make their voices heard in Europe! And it could be worse- you have to be 23 to stand in France and 25 in Italy, Greece and Cyprus. Be brave young Europeans, our time will come!