Catherine Stihler, Scottish Labour MEP

Welcome to the Parliament Magazine's MEP awards.  The awards have been voted for by members, NGOs and organisations to select MEPs who they feel have made significant contributions to their chosen field.  From Transport to Civil Liberties the awards cover a broad array of sectors and hold particular weight for MEPs because they are voted for by the people who are best placed to judge how effective Members have been.

The awards come shortly after the election of the Commission President, Jose Manuel Barosso, and at a time when most delegations are agreeing on formats for publishing their accounts. 

For the past two months Parliament has been caught up in the election of Barosso and the administrative burden of the new mandate.  The awards serve to remind us that we are here to represent our constituents and contribute towards our Committees.  The strategy for bringing a swift conclusion to the financial crisis must be decided.  We must also help those who have lost their jobs, and provide the kind of social policy which they need.  Most of all we must ensure we don't end up in the same situation again.  The job is not finished after we have found solutions to these problems; we must be more effective at communicating our work to Member States and to the media.  If our citizens are not aware of what we have achieved on their behalf our work is not nearly effective as it could be. 

I recently welcomed a school visitors group to the European Parliament and had some fantastic feedback.  The students were overwhelmed by the scale of the European institutions.  If only we had the opportunity to welcome more citizens to Brussels and communicate the work which we are doing to both help and protect them.

Once the new Commission is in place there is nothing stopping up from getting stuck back into our work in earnest , and who knows, perhaps collect a Parliament Magazine award along the way.