Regardless of the final outcome of last week’s European Election, MEPs remain important allies to the environment and health movement. As democratically-elected representatives of citizens in 27 countries of the EU, they aim to reflect the public interest of their electorate. Despite voter turn-out being at an all time low we hope that the new MEPs will continue to play a leading role in protecting health and the environment through the legislative process.

Through the previous Parliament, MEPs helped to ban some of the most hazardous pesticides in use in Europe, and voted in requirements on air quality to protect vulnerable groups. In several other areas MEPs have asked for important reviews, for example the standard review on electro-magnetic fields.

Foci for new MEPs

With the health threats from climate change and with new chemicals, wireless devices and nano- technologies being developed all the time, we hope the new Parliament will be even more ambitious in protecting health, particularly through environmental policy making. With climate change set to dominate the policy agenda and to challenge public health achievements in Europe, HEAL is particularly keen to gain commitment from MEPs on the need for health to be central to these discussions.

HEAL’s election campaign

Many HEAL members were very active in carrying out our pre-election campaign by asking candidate MEPs to pledge on ‘8 wishes for putting people’s health and environment first’. In particular, the Italian Pediatric Cultural Association got many pledges back and launched the results with a press release in Italy. The French Reseau Environnement Santé also received a lot of cross-party feedback, as did the Irish Doctors. With the help of our members, we will now monitor the behaviour of the newly-elected MEPs and remind them of their commitment.

We will use the 8 pledges as a framework for first contacts with new MEPs. As soon as the new Parliament reconvenes, HEAL will send them all a welcome letter reiterating our calls to: 1. Promote and protect public health as a means to economic recovery. 2. Ensure that all policies protect children’s health. 3. Support higher targets on carbon dioxide reductions to address climate change. 4. Help the EU reach a toxic-free future by 2020. 5. Support stricter standards on clean air. 6. Insist on mandatory safety testing of all nanomaterial. 7. Support lower exposure limits on electro-magnetic fields. 8. Encourage limits on noise for day and night. We also plan to organise meetings between MEPs and HEAL members in the context of the Annual General Assembly on October 6-7.

Overview of the election results

The centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) gained 263 elected MEPs of the new 736-seat assembly - this does not account for the centre-right former EPP members including 25 UK Conservative MEPs who will create a new anti-federalist group. The Party of European Socialists (PES) won 163 seats, this is fewer than the previous parliament. The Green/EFA group increased its share of seats in the assembly by a fifth to just under 7%, this was driven by strong national support in France and Germany. The Liberal ALDE group was reduced slightly to 11% of the total share of seats but remain the parliament’s third largest group.

These results boosts Jose Manuel Barroso’s prospects of securing a second five-year term as president of the European Commission. It remains to be seen how the result will affect the next parliament’s stance on environmental issues. Some environmental groups will fear that the EPP’s traditionally pro-industry positioning will lead to less support for green legislation.

The new parliament will meet for its first plenary session on 14 July, when MEPs will elect a new president and chairs of parliamentary committees. The final composition of the various committees will be decided at a second plenary session starting on 20 July.