Your Barents MEPs
Three candidates from the Barents Region were elected members of the European Parliament.
If you want the European Parliament to extend its focus on the High North, you might want to lobby the parliament’s three new members from the Barents Region.
From Finland, two candidates were elected. Mr. Hannu Takkula, a Centre Party representative and MEP since 2004, comes from Rovaniemi and has extensive experiences from Finnish Parliament, partly from the parliament’s foreign policy and defence committees.
Liisa Jaakonsaari from Oulu is the only new member of the three MEPs. The journalist-educated woman has been member of the Finnish Parliament for the Social Democrats since 1979 and has the last eight years been Chairperson of the parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee. She has also experience as labour minister in the first government of Paavo Lipponen (1995-1999).
According Jaakonsaari’s personal website, she is also in the process of learning Russian language.
Anna Ibrisagic from Luleå is the only Swedish MEP from the Barents Region. She has been in the parliament for the Conservative Party since 2004, and has been especially engaged in issues of peace and security in Europe. On her website, she highlights the need for a bigger European engagement in Eastern Europe including cooperation with Russia.
The elections to the European Parliament was yesterday held both in Finland and Sweden. Voter turnout in Sweden was 43,8 percent, which is up from 37,1 procent in 2004. In the northernmost Swedish regions of Norrbotten and Västerbotten voter turnout was respectively 39,2 percent and 44 percent, Swedish Radio informs. The Liberal People’s Party (Folkpartiet) was the Swedish election winner with a 13,6 percent support, which is a major boost from 2004. Both the Conservative Party and the Social Democratic Party got about the same level of support as in 2004, respectively 18,8 percent and 24,6 percent.
In Finland, national voter turnout was 40,2 percent, which is down from 41,1 percent in 2004. In the northernmost counties of Lapland and Oulu, voter turnout was respectively 35,9 percent and 35,2 percent, the election section of YLE informs.
The Green League, the True Finns and the Christian Democrats all won new seats in the parliament, while the biggest parties – the National Coalition Party, the Centre Party and the Social Democratic Party got respectively 23,2 percent, 19 percent and 17,5 percent and all lost one parliament seat.
In all of the Union, voter turnout was 43,09 percent which is down from 45,47 percnet in 2004.
