BACKGROUND: The Greeks have a Finnish candidate, too
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Since 1994, candidates for the European Parliament have been able to stand in countries other than those whose citizens they are. A few such candidates have even secured election.
There were at least three in the outgoing Parliament: there is the German Daniel Cohn-Bendit (France, Greens), the Italian Monica Frassoni (Belgium, Greens), and Belgian Olivier Dupuis, who is a Transnational Radical Party MEP for North-West Italy. Both Cohn-Bendit and Frassoni are standing again, this time in their home countries. Dupuis is trying for re-election in Italy.
There will be at least one other Finn on the ballot outside Finland besides Ari Vatanen. Kaija Turppo is seeking election in Greece as one of the multinational list of the small Radical Left Front. The grouping has decided to draw its candidates from all the EU member states. Turppo does not, however, anticipate she has much chance of getting elected.
To balance things out, the SDP candidates from Finland include one Tony Melville, British-born but now a naturalised Finn, who still retains his British passport and dual citizenship.
The MEPs include many who have at some point taken another nationality. Several represented Germany in the last Parliament, including Greek-, Turkish-, and French-born individuals.
Dr. Michael Shackleton, who has worked in the European Parliament for over 20 years, says that those who represent a country other than "their own" have always been rarities, and that at least right now there will not be many new ones coming in.
Shackleton, who joined the Secretariat in 1981, is currently head of the service responsible for conciliations between the Council of Ministers and the Parliament. He notes that it is usually rather difficult for foreigners to get themselves rooted in the political life of another country.
Those MEPs who have managed it often have special ties with the country that they choose to represent. Cohn-Bendit, for example, has lived by turns in both France and Germany: he was born in France, attended school in Germany, and went to university in France. His name was on many people’s lips - as "Danny the Red" - during the May 1968 student riots at the Sorbonne and elsewhere. After his expulsion from France in the wake of the riots, he settled again in Germany.
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 6.6.2004
More on this subject:
 Ari Vatanen - MEP Sans Frontières
Helsingin Sanomat
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