The BNP’s first ever MEPs – party leader Nick Griffin and his colleague Andrew Brons – yesterday took their seats in the European Parliament, a month after the European elections delivered a drubbing to socialists across Europe.

Voting reform is something I believe in. If we had adopted preferential voting (Single Transferable Vote), the BNP would not have gained a seat in the European Parliament. It is this ridiculous form of PR that has allowed a party with under 10% of the vote a seat in the European Parliament. This sets back the cause for voting reform. Please understand: Preferential Voting would not allow this to h...

Peter Tatchell will join Green candidate Peter Cranie - the man who stands between the BNP leader and the European Parliament, if the opinion polls are correct - on Thursday and Friday. On-the-ground campaigning will include leafletting and talking to members of the public in a part of North Manchester recently targeted by the BNP - because, say the Greens, the BNP should not be allowed to think t...

10 June session Electoral reform The prime minister insisted he had "no plans" to hold a referendum on electoral reform before the next general election. The Tory leader, David Cameron, said proportional representation had "massive drawbacks" as demonstrated by the election of two BNP candidates to the European parliament. He claimed Brown was only proposing electoral reform because Labour had bee...

The European Greens have used the summer break to gather input for their political campaign in the run-up to the European Parliament elections next year, with participants heading to their university event from all corners of Europe.

Viviane Reding, the EU Telecoms Commissioner, commented on yesterday's vote as follows: "I welcome the European Parliament's strong endorsement of the reform of the EU telecoms rules. All three reports on the reform have been voted today by the Parliament with overwhelming majorities: 565 votes in favour of the establishment of the new European Telecoms Body BEREC, 493 votes in favour of...

Euro-Greens – standing by what we said By Hugh Caffrey In Who are the Euro-Greens, an article in the Socialist Party’s Socialism Today magazine (May 2009, ), I outlined the sorry record of the Greens in power in Ireland, France and Germany, and some of the policies advanced by their group in the European parliament. A

How can anyone write about the 2004 European election results and not mention the most salient fact about them: that Ukip got 16.1% of the vote? That Ukip came third, pushing the Lib Dems into fourth place? When talking about the north-west region, how can you talk about keeping the BNP out without talking about who did keep the BNP out? Ukip, that is, with 11.7% of the vote. Just to remind everyo...

It is a promising sign. The European Parliament has reacted to reports on wide-spread sleaze. But the statement is an almost blanket denial. The issues are serious enough to merit space. First, let the EP speak. Then we try to evaluate the measures and trust of the European Parliament. *** European Parliament press statement On 24 February 2009 the European Parliament issued the following press re...

Open Europe has today published a comparison between the cost of the European Parliament and the cost of the UK Parliament. On his Guardian blog, Michael White cites Open Europe’s finding that the European Parliament costs taxpayers £1.8 million for each MEP per year.