Madam, - I was interested to read the proposals by Sammy van Tuyll and Arno Uijlenhoet for improving citizen representation in the European Parliament (Opinion & Analysis, June 19th).
They complain that the parliament is "an element of the Europe of the capitals", distant from the voters, and suggest a party list system where voters would choose a party, and the party would then choose the candidate, rather than the present system of directly electing the candidate.
I'm not sure this would have the effect the authors intend. Where party lists are used in national elections, Russia and Israel for example, they tend to put undue control into the hands of party leaders and unelected party mandarins, rather than of the people. The sitting candidates owe their seats to the the party, rather than directly to the electorate.
An alternative solution would be for the Netherlands to follow Ireland's example and use constituencies in their European Parliament elections. Currently, the Netherlands, along with most EU members, elects its MEPs nationally, meaning that all 27 Dutch MEPs will tend to campaign in, and disproportionately represent, major population centres.
Here in Ireland, our regional Euro-constituencies, which roughly conform to the traditional provinces, ensure that our MEPs are not creatures of the capital, as van Tuyll and Uijlenhoet complain. - Yours, etc,
MARK SUGRUE, Dublin City University, Dublin 9.