Mission to European Parliament
19-Nov-2012
ICA Boot camp Leader Imelda Byrne International PRO for Carlow ICA Federation leads ICA Mission to European Parliament
The familiar “Welcome to An Grianán” changed recently to “Welcome to Brussels” as a group of 8 Carlow ICA Federation members lead by Imelda visited the European Parliament in Brussels.
Invited by MEP Nessa Childers; a member of Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament; Nessa has an important role on the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety along with co-chairing the interest group on mental health. She is also actively involved in the European Breast Cancer Coalition and Creative Europe which fosters arts and culture. All of these activities are aligned with ICA core values and initiatives.
At present slightly over one third of MEPs are women.
The members saw how proposals become law and how the Member (MEP) has a say on the future of a Europe where 500 million Europeans are represented in 23 official languages which includes the Irish language. Peace in Europe for the last 60 years has been the European Union greatest achievement.
The ICA learned Brussels is at the heart of the European Union. It hosts the European Council, the Commission; the place of work of the Parliament and many other European institutions, Strasbourg is the official seat of the European Parliament. Each month, Members gather for four days to vote and debate in a series of meetings known as plenary sessions.
The European Parliament is made up of 754 Members elected in the 27 Member States of the enlarged European Union.
Each Member State decides on the form its election will take, but follows identical democratic ground rules: direct universal suffrage, proportional representation and a five-year renewable term. In all Member States, the voting age is 18, with the exception of Austria, where it is 16. The seats are, as a general rule, shared out proportionately to the population of each Member State. The Members of the European Parliament are grouped by political affinity and not by nationality. They exercise their mandate in an independent fashion.
Members of the European Parliament influence every area of the day-to-day life of the European public: the environment, consumer protection and transport, as well as education, culture, health etc.