Out of the 221 seats of the EPP Group in the European Parliament, 79 seats (35.75%) will be occupied by Newcomers. More than half of the Newcomers are from Italy (8), Poland (8), Romania (8), Czech Republic (7) and France (7).

Here below is the breakdown of Newcomers by Member States:

AUSTRIA (1 )

1. Claudia Schmidt (ÖVP, City Council of Salzburg, responsible for urban planning

BELGIUM ( 2)

Regulatory reform is unquestionably of great importance, nowher more so than at EU level given the inherent complexity of a Union of 28 member states. If the process of developing policy, particularly legislation, is sub-standard, then inevitably so will be the outcome. The EU must lead by example in ensuring that policy is fit for purpose and the member states must also recognise their responsibility and role in the process.

Incoming policy-makers need to take measures to streamline the EU including working within a ‘regulatory budget’, setting a cap on business regulation costs in Europe. Businesses need certainty and stability to secure sustainable economic growth in Europe, delivering rising living standards for all. Too much new regulation introduced too fast can overwhelm businesses, and affect their productivity levels, profits and ability to innovate. A ‘regulatory budget’ to cap the cost of new regulation.

Over-regulation, ineffective and poorly designed rules exist that are negative to enterprise and society’s efficiency. The OECD distinguishes between four different kinds of costs associated with regulatory failures:

Lobby groups carry out a range of functions. These include:

Anti-corporate activists hold that the influence of big corporations is a detriment to the public good and to the democratic process. It should be recognized, however, that the EU legislates in many ways that restrict the actions of corporations and lawbreaking companies are usually punished in the form of monetary fines. In addition, from the perspective of business ethics, the point should be made that corporations are not, inherently more evil than any other groups and are no more likely to attempt unethical or illegal activity than other interest representatives.

Prior to the European elections, a campaign called ‘Politics for People’ was launched and coordinated by the Alliance for Lobbying Transparency and Ethics Regulation (ALTER-EU). ALTER-EU seeks to expose and challenge the privileged access and influence enjoyed by corporations and their lobby groups in EU policy making. It sees rolling back corporate power and exposing greenwash as a precondition for adequately addressing global and European problems like poverty, climate change, social injustice, hunger and environmental degradation

Lob­by­ing is often mis­per­ceived by the pub­lic as a form of leg­al­ized cor­rup­tion. Crit­ics argue that the lack of trans­par­ency, exacer­bated by the influ­ence of lob­by­ists, hinders the demo­cratic legit­im­acy of law-making. How­ever, such a pre-judgment is based on exag­ger­ated assump­tions and there­fore, draws false con­clu­sions on the influ­ence and power of lobbyists.

As national leaders look towards nominating their candidate, they face a decision that will likely determine the future success or failure of the European project. If such a decision were to be degraded into nothing more than a power play between the European Council and the European Parliament, then citizens across the continent would be right to become ever more disillusioned with the EU project.

Here below we reproduce on extract of what Guillaume Xavier-Bender a Transatlantic Fellow based in the Brussels office of the German Marshall Fund of the United States writes:

“The word ‘commemoration’ takes its true meaning: relating altogether; remembering together…. those who fought that day and the days after to liberate Europe and the true value and costs of European peace and unity.